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2023 school board election data analysis

Analysis by year

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Elections by year

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Elections by state

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Ballotpedia covered school board elections in 192 school districts in 29 states in 2023. Those school districts had a total student enrollment of 5,362,958 students. This report dives into the 514 seats that were up for election in those districts, and the 986 candidates who ran to fill those seats.

In this report you will find:

• How 2023 school board election data compares to 2022, 2021, and 2020 data
• An overview of school board election data from 2023
• An analysis of the partisan and race stage election methods used in 2023
• Details about school board election opposition by state and by enrollment
• School board incumbent running rates and win rates
• How non-incumbent school board candidates faired in 2023
• Definitions and our methodology on how seats, candidates, and incumbents were counted

Comparison by year

Out of the four years, 2023 had the highest incumbent win rate, 82.39% compared to 78.29% in 2022, 78.51% in 2021, and 81.72% in 2020. The table below details school board election data for 2020, 2021, 2022, and 2023.

Overview

Of the 29 states with school board elections covered by Ballotpedia in 2023,Texas had the most seats up for election with 173.Colorado had the second-most with 47 seats up for election. Four states—Kentucky,Louisiana,Mississippi, andSouth Carolina—tied for the fewest seats up for election with one each, andAlaska,Arkansas, andNew York had the second-fewest with two each.

The map below shows how many seats were up for election in school districts covered by Ballotpedia in each state in 2023. Ballotpedia did not cover school board elections in the states shown in gray.

The first table below details the total number of school board seats that were up for election in 2023 as well as how many candidates filed to run, the average number of candidates per seat, the number of incumbents who ran for re-election, how many open seats there were, and the total student enrollment in the districts that held elections. The second table details the same information by state. Click [Show] to the right to see the full list.

The first table below provides details about the winners of the 2023 school board elections, including the percent of seats won by incumbents, won by non-incumbents, and won by write-ins or filled by means other than elections. The second table details the same information by state. Click [Show] to the right to see the full list.

The school districts covered by Ballotpedia in 2023 had a range of student enrollments. The largest enrollments included theHouston Independent School District in Texas with 194,607 students andFairfax County Public Schools in Virginia with 178,479 students. The smallest enrollments included theBanner School District in Oklahoma with 305 students and theCrutcho Public Schools in Oklahoma with 383 students. The chart below shows the distribution of school districts by student enrollment size.

Method of elections

Partisan method of election

Race stage method of election

Table of election methods by school district

The table below shows all of the 192 school districts that held elections in 2023. It includes information on the partisan method of election and race stage method of election for each district. Click [Show] to the right to see the full list.

Opposition

By state

North Carolina had the highest average number of candidates run per school board seat in 2023. The state saw 14 candidates run for three seats for an average of 4.67 candidates per seat. Louisiana saw the lowest average number of candidates run per seat. One candidate ran for one seat in that state for an average of one candidate per seat.

When looking at unopposed seats, Louisiana took the lead with 100% of school board seats seeing only one candidate run. Fourteen states—Alaska, California, Idaho, Illinois, Minnesota, Mississippi, Nebraska, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, North Carolina, and South Carolina—had no unopposed seats in 2023.

The map and table below detail the candidates per seat and percent of unopposed seats in each state in 2023. Ballotpedia did not cover school board elections in the states shown in gray.

By enrollment

When looking at school districts by enrollment, larger districts saw a higher average number of candidates per seat compared to smaller districts. In school districts with a student enrollment of 100,001 and over, the average number of candidates per seat was 2.67, which was the highest out of 13 enrollment sizes. All districts with enrollments above 40,001 students saw an average of more than two candidates per seat, while school districts with enrollments below 40,001 all had fewer than two candidates per seat. The smallest average was 1.48 candidates per seat in school districts with enrollments between 1,001 and 5,000. The chart below details the candidates per seat in the 2023 school board elections by enrollment size.

Incumbents

A total of 318 school board incumbents ran for re-election in 2023, and 262 were elected to new terms, a win rate of 82.39%. Thirteen states—Alaska, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nebraska, North Carolina, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington—saw all school board incumbents who ran for re-election win, while Georgia and New York saw half of the incumbents who ran lose their re-election bids. The state of California and South Carolina had no incumbents run for re-election.

The map below shows the incumbent win rates by state for the 2023 school board elections. Ballotpedia did not cover school board elections in the states shown in gray.

Overall, 61.87% of incumbents whose terms were up for re-election in 2023 ran for new terms. Incumbents won 50.97% of the school board seats up for election. The table below lists incumbent details for each state that held school board elections in 2023.

Non-incumbents

A total of 668 of the 986 candidates who ran in the 2023 school board elections were non-incumbents. They won 248 school board seats, 48.25% of the seats up for election. Three states—California, New Mexico, and South Carolina—saw all seats up for election go to non-incumbents, while Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Mississippi saw no non-incumbents win election.

The map below details the percent of seats won by non-incumbents by state in the 2023 school board elections. Ballotpedia did not cover school board elections in the states shown in gray.

Non-incumbents in 2023 were guaranteed to win 196 open seats, 38.13% of all seats up for election, as no incumbents filed to run for re-election for those seats. California and South Carolina were the only state to have all open school board seats in 2023. Six states—Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, and New York—had no open seats. The table below details the number and percent of open seats in each state in 2023 as well as the non-incumbent win rates.

Methodology

This report includes school board elections covered by Ballotpedia in2023. A total of 476 school districts were in Ballotpedia's coverage scope in 2023. This includes all school districts in the100 largest cities by population and the200 largest school districts by student enrollment. Although Ballotpedia covers allschool board recalls in the United States, recall elections are not included in this report.In 2023, Ballotpedia covered school board elections in 29 states. Ballotpedia did not cover school board elections in the following 21 states:

This report looks at overall numbers from the 2023 school board elections related tomethod of elections,opposition,incumbents, andnon-incumbents. Below is a list of definitions of terms used in this report:

• District/School district: School districts within Ballotpedia's coverage scope that held elections in 2023.
• Seats: The seats that were up for election in the school districts within Ballotpedia's coverage scope in 2023. If an election was canceled, the seats were still counted.
• Candidates: Individuals who completed the regular filing process required for school board elections in their state and did not withdraw or get disqualified before the election was held. Individuals were counted as candidates if they ran for part of a race, such as a primary, before withdrawing in a later stage, such as a general election. Write-in candidates who were not incumbents were not counted as candidates due to the extreme variation in election filing laws across states.
• Incumbents: School board members who ran for re-election to a seat within the same board. Ballotpedia counts incumbents by chamber, so if a school board member ran for a different seat on the board than the one they held as of the election date, they were still counted as an incumbent. If an incumbent ran as a write-in candidate, they were counted toward the candidate total and the incumbent total. Three incumbent write-in candidates were counted in this report. Two lost their bids for re-election, and one won another term.
• Non-incumbents: Candidates who were not members of the school board they were running to represent at the time of the election.
• Open seats: Seats in which an incumbent did not run for re-election, which guaranteed the seat would be won by a non-incumbent.
• Unopposed seats: Seats that had only one candidate in all stages of an election. If a candidate faced opposition in a primary and went on to a general election where they did not face opposition, the seat was not counted as unopposed. If a candidate faced opposition only from non-incumbent write-in candidates, the seat was counted as unopposed.
• Election/Race stages: Stages required to complete an election, including: primary, primary runoff, general, and general runoff.

See also

• School Boards and School Board Elections
• School board elections, 2023
• School board election data analysis, 2022
• School board election data analysis, 2021
• School board election data analysis, 2020
• School boards in session: 2016 in brief
• School boards in session: 2015 in brief
• School boards in session: 2014 elections by the numbers