As the pastor of a small church, I wear a lot of hats. Secretary, Worship leader, Discipleship, Scheduler, Plumber, Electrician, Website guy, and IT guy. Every so often, the internet at the church stops working. So, I go around to all the access points, unplug them, count to 15, plug them back, and hold my breath. But on several occasions, that hasn’t worked. Sometimes it has come down to something going on with a piece of network gear. Other times, and perhaps the most frustrating, is when Comcast is actually down!!!
With as technologically advanced as we have become, how is there not some sort of light or alert you get from your Comcast modem that tells you when the internet is down, so you don’t have to go down the Google worm hole to try to figure out how to get your church back online? I mean, just a little red blinking light would be great. How hard would that be.
I finally went to down detector and learned that about half the country had probably been doing the same scavenger hunt as me. No matter how many times I power-cycled the modems, routers, switches, access points, and my soul, nothing was going to change. We weren’t going to have internet again until the people with the power to fix it, actually fixed it.
And honestly, that’s about how local school boards work.
People think electing the right person to the school board will overhaul curriculum, change graduation requirements, rewrite state laws, end federal mandates, fix transportation funding, repair buildings, stop inflation, reorganize the universe, and maybe solve whatever Coast-to-Coast AM is talking about at 1 a.m. (because that’s when the really fun stuff is talked about).
But here’s the truth:
Most of the big, controversial things people want school boards to change are actually controlled by the STATE (and Congress), not the district.
If this were a home improvement project, the school board is the person who can pick the paint color and hang some shelves. The state legislature is the general contractor who decides what walls exist and where the electrical panel goes.
Let’s break it down.
What Local School Boards CAN Do
✔ Adopt curriculum
This is always the hot-button one. In Battle Ground, committees review options, parents can participate, and the board approves the final choice. But the curriculum companies? They’re not writing edgy manifestos. They’re writing products they can sell to all 50 states. Their motivation is profit, not ideology. So as much as we’d like to believe what the podcast hosts are telling us, (and to be honest, it might be a lot more fun if all the crazy stories they conjured up were true), the reality is, curriculum companies want more profit. Making multiple curriculums for red/blue states costs too much money. So the curriculum has to be something any district in the country would buy. Otherwise, no soup for you. Deeper dive: https://learningpolicyinstitute.org/product/how-money-matters-factsheet
✔ Set the district budget
Within constraints. Big constraints. Lots of constraints.
✔ Hire and evaluate the superintendent
They can’t hire every teacher, but they hire the person who hires the people. Are you familiar with church boards? Their job is, usually, to oversee the pastor, who oversees everything else.
✔ Approve policies that fit within state law
Think of it as: “You may choose any speed, as long as it’s between 24 and 26 mph.”
✔ Set local goals, culture, and direction
This part really matters. Boards help shape how a district treats people, how transparent it is, and whether the community trusts it.
What Local School Boards CANNOT Change
And this is where most political arguments get misdirected.
❌ They cannot change state graduation requirements
Those come from OSPI and the Washington Legislature. Details: https://wsipp.wa.gov/ReportFile/1108/Wsipp_K-12-Education-Spending-and-Student-Outcomes-A-Review-of-the-Evidence_Full-Report.pdf
❌ They cannot change state-mandated health/sex education requirements
Districts choose from the state-approved list; they don’t create the rules. (This was one of the longest curriculum adoption processes in district history.) Details: https://ospi.k12.wa.us/
❌ They cannot dictate what teachers may believe personally
Federal and state law protect teacher speech outside their official duties—while restricting political advocacy during instruction. ACLU breakdown: https://www.aclu-wa.org/app/uploads/2024/09/free_speech_rights_of_k-12_public_school_teachers_in_washington_state_final.pdf
❌ They cannot fix building funding shortages caused at the state level
Washington’s school-construction funding model is famously broken. Local voters and the Legislature hold the power here, not the board. Not the superintendent.
❌ They cannot change teacher salaries on their own
That’s a mix of state allocations + collective bargaining.
❌ They cannot eliminate state testing requirements
Unless they would also like to eliminate Washington State’s Constitution. (Which, frankly, seems unlikely.)
❌ They cannot ignore federal laws
IDEA, ADA, Civil Rights protections, Title IX… These obligations don’t disappear because a community member says, “Well, they shouldn’t have to do this.”
So Why Does This Matter for the Levy?
Because a lot of frustration aimed at our local schools is actually frustration with state or federal policy. If you want those things to change, call your representative. Run for office.
When people believe school boards can overhaul the entire system but don’t… they get angry at the wrong people.
When you go to Google to check out what Elon Musk is up today, or who you should start on your fantasy team this week and you get the hourglass of death, you think: “My 15 year old Linksys router must have finally broken.” But sometimes, the router is still doing its job. And it’s the something going on way deeper in the infrastructure.
The levy is one of the few things our community actually gets to decide. Many have decided against it because things that are outside our district’s control. We are boycotting, yelping, Facebook reviewing, and calling the BBB to lodge complaints about Linksys, when Comcast is the problem.
We may disagree on policies or curriculum, but the levy isn’t about politics— it’s about keeping teachers in classrooms, keeping class sizes manageable, and keeping students supported.
If You Want to Change State Policies…
Please do. Seriously.
Call your state legislators. Email them. Show up. Vote in state elections. Run for office.
But let’s not punish our local kids for decisions made 150 miles north in Olympia, or 2,812 miles east in DC.
Because what is in our hands is whether Battle Ground students get the support they need right now.
