Should state require background checks from school board candidates?
Delegates at the annual Illinois Association of School Boards conference are expected to vote Saturday on a measure calling for future board candidates to submit criminal background checks with their nominating paperwork.
Supporters of the initiative say it closes a loophole in state election law, while critics say it amounts to a poll tax and might deter qualified candidates from seeking office.
The resolution to have IASB advocate for legislation requiring checks was proposed by the Joliet Township High School District 204 board earlier this year. Officials from the district did not respond to requests for comment about what precipitated the proposal.
According to the IASB resolutions committee report, District 204’s board submitted the resolution because “current law states that no school board member can be convicted of an infamous crime. However, there is no oversight that is making sure that this is completed.”
The resolutions committee rejected the proposal at their summer meeting, but District 204 officials are appealing that decision and asking for a vote by delegates anyway. It will require approval from two-thirds of the delegates at the meeting to pass, IASB officials said. Every school district in the state can send one delegate to vote at the conference.
“It could cause financial and procedural challenges for potential school board members,” the report states. “These challenges could deter qualified candidates from running for a school board.”
Legal and government policy experts tend to agree with the resolutions committee.
“We’ve done a lot to advocate for candidates to make it easier for them to run for office and are leery of any new barriers to entry,” said Ryan Tolley, executive director of CHANGE Illinois, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that advocates for ethical government and elections. “Is there an actual problem we’re solving, or is this a solution to a nonproblem?”
Currently, when school board candidates submit petitions to be on the ballot, they must sign an affidavit stating they “qualify” for the office. The onus is on the candidate to know what those qualifications are, said Ross Secler, an attorney at Odelson, Murphey, Frazier & McGrath who specializes in election law.
“You swear under oath that you’re qualified, so it’s a big catch-all,” he said.
Among the candidacy qualifications is the requirement of no prior conviction of an “infamous” crime, which by state statute is defined as “arson, bigamy, bribery, burglary, deviate sexual assault, forgery, incest or aggravated incest, indecent liberties with a child, kidnapping or aggravated kidnapping, murder, perjury, rape, robbery, sale of narcotic drugs, subornation of perjury and theft if the punishment imposed is imprisonment in the penitentiary.”
But Secler points out criminal background checks could reveal convictions of all crimes, not just the infamous variety. And submitting it with candidate paperwork would make it a public document.
“There may be something not disqualifying but embarrassing to bring back up,” he said. “Is that necessary?”
Illinois State Police offer criminal background checks run by their office and the FBI for $33.25, according to their website. However, critics worry about the demand on resources and response times when thousands of candidates from hundreds of Illinois school districts seek that paperwork every two years.
“In the end, we’re holding school board members to a higher standard than anyone else elected to public office,” complained Marc Tepper, Kildeer Countryside Elementary District 96 board president and treasurer of the IASB board of directors. “I don’t think we’re going to see very much support for this.”
The measure is one of 10 resolutions IASB conference delegates are voting on. Six resolutions were supported by the committee, while four others are recommended for rejection, including the background check proposal.