Former President Donald Trump thinks parents should have the ability to fire their children鈥檚 school principal.
鈥淚f you have a bad principal that鈥檚 not getting the job done, the parents will鈥攗nder the Trump administration鈥攂e allowed to vote to fire that principal,鈥� Trump said during a June 30 speech at the Moms for Liberty Joyful Warriors Summit in Philadelphia. 鈥淭his will be the ultimate form of local control.鈥�
The proposal is a novel idea, though the concept of an elected school administrator isn鈥檛 entirely foreign. Florida and Alabama are the only two states in the nation that allow schools to elect local superintendents. No states, however, allow for principals to be elected to their positions.
Trump argued that principal elections will give parents the power to take schools back from 鈥渞adical Marxist maniacs.鈥� In , the former president said that he鈥檇 鈥渋mplement massive funding preferences and favorable treatment鈥� for states and school systems that adopt principal elections in addition to abolishing teacher tenure; adopting merit pay for teachers; cutting the number of administrators, especially those focused on diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts; and adopting a parents鈥� bill of rights that includes curriculum transparency.
Education Week decided to look into how principal elections could work. But the idea is flawed and impractical at best and dangerous at worst, education policy experts say. And Trump would have an arduous time instituting such a massive change for local education systems.
Can he do that?
As president, Trump would have little recourse to incentivize local communities to elect school principals and no ability to require it, said Derek Black, an education law and policy professor at the University of South Carolina.
鈥淭he president has no power, nor does Congress have any such power,鈥� Black said. 鈥淚t is theoretical that Congress could pass some sort of law giving states money and, in exchange for that money, states would agree to change their own law. The only means through which it could be accomplished is legislation.鈥�
Trump has indicated he would advocate for such a law. But if Congress remains divided as it is currently, it would be nearly impossible to pass. Even among Republicans, it could be difficult, Black said, as some may perceive the move to be the federal government infringing on the U.S. tradition of local control of schools.
Trump may also have a difficult time inspiring states to change their laws for the same reason, Black said. Most states don鈥檛 have laws allowing for the election of school superintendents, much less the direct election of principals.
Widening the political divide in schools
If Trump succeeded in encouraging states to allow principals to be elected, communities that decide to do such a thing would have to restructure their entire election systems.
It鈥檚 unclear how voting districts for school principals would be set up. States could decide to have election districts match school zones, allowing only voters living in a school鈥檚 zone to vote on the principal鈥攁 move that would be complicated even more by school choice policies that allow students to attend schools in zones outside of where they live.
Or, voting districts could follow the structure established in school board elections, allowing voters to choose principals for schools their students don鈥檛 attend. It鈥檚 unclear, based on Trump鈥檚 description of the policy, if voters would be limited to parents with children currently attending the school or include parents of incoming or outgoing students. It鈥檚 also far from certain constitutionally that voters in school principal elections could be limited to parents.
鈥淭here would be lots of questions about what that actually would look like, who would be implementing that, and logistically how that plays out,鈥� said Chris Curran, director of the Educational Policy Research Center at the University of Florida. 鈥淚n the bigger picture, there are issues with what that could do in bringing more political divide to the school environment.鈥�
Principal elections would naturally force prospective and current principals to become politicians, meaning they would have to spend their free time campaigning for votes, a time-consuming addition to an already demanding job.
There鈥檚 also a question of ethics. How might a principal who is hoping to win over voters to keep their job change the decisions they make as a school leader? The effects could be disastrous, said Edward Fuller, an education policy professor at Penn State University, who focuses his research on school leadership.
鈥淚t would impair their ability to be an effective principal because now you鈥檙e listening to some group of individuals in a community who have enough votes to vote you in or out,鈥� Fuller said. 鈥淚f you want to be principal, you have to do what they want you to do whether it鈥檚 good for kids or not.鈥�
A blow to principal morale
The principal profession experiences higher rates of attrition and turnover than comparable management roles in other professions. That鈥檚 because of limited pay, the demands of the job, working conditions, and increasingly vocal parent opposition to school curriculum and policies, Fuller said.
Fuller, who has studied principal turnover in Nebraska, Pennsylvania, and Texas, said 10 to 15 percent of principals leave the profession each year and the average length of stay for a principal is four years, with around half of principals leaving the profession before the fifth year.
The shift to an elected model would only exacerbate those challenges, both leading to higher turnover and discouraging new principals from entering the profession, Fuller said.
鈥淚t would be disastrous for the principalship,鈥� Fuller said. 鈥淲e would see schools have a really difficult time getting anybody to do it.鈥�
Higher principal turnover also leads to other problems in schools, including higher teacher turnover and lower math and reading scores. And past studies on the impact of elected superintendents have shown that students in districts with superintendents appointed by a local school board , though how a district selects its superintendent isn鈥檛 necessarily the determining factor.
The argument for parents鈥� rights
Trump wants to give voters control over their school principals to expand upon parental rights in the governance of schools, an issue that has become the top education agenda item for Republican presidential candidates, especially as organizations like Moms for Liberty鈥攚hich endorses conservative school board candidates in much of the country鈥攈ave gained political influence.
But it remains to be seen whether principal elections would be an accurate representation of parent voice. Turnout is historically low for school board elections, and the pool of people invested in an individual principal鈥檚 election would be even smaller.
And many parents, often for legal reasons, don鈥檛 have complete information about what is happening within schools. For example, a principal may decide to suspend a student, angering a group of parents. But the federal law known as the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, or FERPA, would prohibit the principal from releasing specifics on such a situation, leaving voters to make up their own minds, Black said.
鈥淚t could be quite destructive,鈥� Black said. 鈥淎ll of a sudden the principal, instead of becoming a school leader because that鈥檚 what the principal is 鈥� the principal becomes a customer service representative.鈥�
There are ways to increase parent involvement and give parents more of a voice in schools that don鈥檛 require such a massive logistical transformation and are more realistic, Curran said. For example, some large districts, including Chicago, have elected that perform annual evaluations of principals and decide whether to renew principal contracts.
鈥淓xploring some of those avenues might be more fruitful ways to think about how we encourage parents to be involved and give them a formal process to be involved in the decisionmaking,鈥� Curran said.
While it will be nearly impossible for Trump to make elected principals a reality, the proposal itself and the rhetoric accompanying it have an impact on educators, Fuller said.
鈥淲hat he鈥檚 communicating is principals aren鈥檛 doing their jobs, schools aren鈥檛 doing their jobs, and you have people on both sides of the aisle saying that,鈥� Fuller said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 one of the reasons we have a shortage of teachers and principals now, because of the constant attacks on educators.鈥�
