PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 21, 2024
Contact: Jacob Posik
Director of Legislative Affairs
Office: 207.321.2550
Maine Policy Releases School Board Member Survey
New survey outlines what issues Maine school board members view as the most pressing for their districts
PORTLAND, Maine – Maine Policy Institute today released the Maine School Board Member Survey, its newest publication, which surveyed current Maine school board members on 40 education-related issues to identify board members’ top concerns across the state.
The survey found a majority of school board members view the performance of their individual board as “good” or “excellent” and said their board engages in Maine Policy’s school board best practices. It also found that self-identified liberal and conservative school board members are increasingly polarized on controversial “culture war” issues in K-12 education.
Top Issues
School board members across Maine are most concerned about mental health, staffing and behavior issues within schools. Eighty-six percent of respondents were concerned about mental health problems among students, 83 percent about teacher shortages, and the same number expressed concern about bullying and harassment. Four-in-five board members also identified chronic absenteeism as an ongoing concern.
“Over the last few years, the number of students struggling with mental health and behavioral issues has increased. These challenges, among others, are driving teachers to leave the profession, worsening the state’s teacher shortage,” said Jonah Davids, research fellow at the Maine Policy Institute and creator of the survey. “The fact that school board members across the state, regardless of political views, identify these as their top concerns shows that these problems go beyond political perception and are affecting nearly everyone.”
Minor Issues
Among the 40 issues surveyed, board members were least concerned about racial/ethnic achievement gaps, controversial curriculum, activism from parents, financial transparency and internet access. Just 39 percent were concerned about LGBTQ+ book bans, 38 percent about sexually explicit books, and 36 percent about critical race theory.
Political Polarization
Board members who identified as liberal or conservative generally share the same top concerns as all board members but diverge on issues related to activism by students and parents, gender and sexuality, and diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
Only five percent of liberal board members identified critical race theory as a concern compared to 73 percent of conservative members. Similarly, 63 percent of liberal members expressed concern about the lack of diverse representations in curriculum and learning materials while only 18 percent of conservative members identified this as a concern for their district.
“Many people care deeply about these culture war issues and genuinely want to make progress on them. But results like these show that when it comes to these inflammatory topics, liberals and conservatives are almost in different worlds,” said Davids.
The survey was created by Davids and distributed electronically to Maine school board members. Maine Policy collected the names and email addresses of 1,034 Maine school board members from district websites. Those board members were emailed a link to the survey three times over the course of the summer. Roughly 220 board members responded. Survey participation was completely voluntary.
The full survey findings and corresponding analysis can be found here.
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Maine Policy Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that works to expand individual liberty and economic freedom in Maine. Learn more about our work atwww.mainepolicy.org.