National survey of school board members' perceived religious and political leanings and their attitudes on selected education issues

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine if a relationship existed between school board members' religious and political leanings and their attitudes on selected education issues in which members of the Christian Right are active. The research questions for this study were, (1) Do school board members perceive themselves as religiously conservative or liberal? (2) Do school board members perceive themselves as politically conservative or liberal? (3) What are school board members' attitudes on education issues dealing with separation of church and state and school choice? (4) Is there a relationship between school board members' perceived religious leanings and their attitudes on these education issues? (5) Is there a relationship between school board members' perceived political leanings and their attitudes on these education issues?

Members of the Christian Right have identified several education issues in which they are active. These issues include separation of church and state and school choice. They are working in political arenas to define their positions and develop political and educational strategies to achieve those positions. Like other groups, members of the Christian Right are dissatisfied with the current condition of public education and the results of restructuring efforts of America's public schools.

Descriptive research methodology was utilized in this study. A stratified, random sample of school board member subscribers to The American School Board Journal was identified, and subsequently surveyed through the use of a mailed survey. Sixteen percent of the population of 36, 619 were surveyed. A total of 6,135 surveys were mailed to subscribers of The American School Board Journal. The response rate for the questionnaires was 20.3% (1,247 of the 6,135 surveys were analyzed in this study).

The data clearly show that the school board members who responded to the survey perceived themselves as religiously conservative and politically conservative. As a group, school board members did not necessarily reflect educational positions espoused by members of the Christian Right. For example, in the area of separation of church and state, less than one-third of the respondents agreed that America needed a constitutional amendment allowing prayer in public schools. In the area of school choice, almost two-thirds of the respondents agreed that school choice plans will widen economic and racial gaps between schools.

However, when examining the responses which reflect the positions of the Christian Right pertaining to the identified education issues, those who perceived themselves as religious conservatives, and to a greater extent, those who perceived themselves as political conservatives, clearly reflected those positions. The data show that there is a relationship between a school board member's perceived religious leaning and their attitudes on the selected education issues, and there is a stronger relationship between a school board member's political leaning and their attitudes on the selected education issues.