National School Boards Association

Starting with the Massachusetts Law of 1642, the American colonies began a commitment to public education created and funded by the public and governed at the local level. This became the common pattern for public education following the War of Independence, with local boards of education being elected to oversee the public schools of the community. But as the nation and states grew in size and diversity, the state and federal governments began to assume more and more control and power over the local school districts.

Beginning in the late 1800s, school districts within states joined together and formed state school board associations so as to exert a greater voice within their respective states. By 1940 these state associations recognized that a collective voice was needed at the national level and created the National School Boards Association (NSBA), designed to be the national voice of thousands of local boards of education through their state associations. The goal from the outset has been to help this democratic system of local governance be a highly effective system for enabling the nation's children to succeed in life.

Each state association is a constituent member of NSBA, electing two local school board members to serve as official NSBA delegates (total 150). This body adopts all policies by at least a two-thirds vote and all annual resolutions by a simple majority vote minimum. The policies become the organization's legislative platform until specifically revised. The super majority for policies ensures that there exists widespread support for any proposed position statement. Individual local school districts can choose to become a national affiliate member for many services, but they will not have direct vote status.

NSBA also works together with a number of other education-related national organizations to seek common agreements on issues and then to advocate for those positions together, speaking with a unified voice. This effort includes teacher unions, administrative and leadership groups, the PTO and PTA (Parent Teacher Organization and Parent Teacher Association), and curriculum-related organizations so as to bring together those who, at times, have disagreed with each other in the past.

The NSBA Federal Relations Network has nearly 1,000 local board members acting as legislative lobbyists. The School Board News, a newsletter, and the American School Board Journal, a monthly magazine, serve as major communication tools of NSBA. In addition, its e-mail newsletter, Legal Clips, provides weekly updates of court cases and decisions that are impacting public schools in the nation.

NSBA's legal services regularly file amicus briefs on behalf of local districts when the case has a potential significant impact on all public schools. For example in MAL v. Kinsland, 543 F.3d 841 (6th Cir. 2008), a Sixth Circuit panel unanimously held that the legal standard for evaluating a mere time, manner, and place regulation of student speech is not the very high one of whether the regulation is necessary to avoid a material and substantial disruption of school operations, but a more lenient one of whether the regulation fulfills the First Amendment requirements. The majority opinion closely tracked the arguments in NSBA's amicus brief, at one point using a nearly verbatim passage.

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