An education election? Looking ahead to elected educators’ impact

What role did education play in the 2018 election, and what will the results mean for schools?

In the weeks after the November midterm elections, there were endless commentaries and predictions about what the election results would mean for education. There were no easy answers to that question, although many tried to spin the results to support their own interests or cause. Some dubbed 2018 “The Year of the Teacher,” and expectations were high for the hundreds of teachers running for office. Despite some outsized estimates about how many teachers ran for office, reporters from Education Week could only verify 177 teacher-candidates, with just over 40 winning their races. Still, their presence in races all over the country, especially in states that have seen drastic budget cuts and teacher strikes, stoked the educator-warrior in many of us. Now that the dust has settled and the winners are getting down to work, let’s consider how these new state and local leaders might influence the education debate.

With all of this as the backdrop, Americans went to the polls and elected more than 40 educators, several pro-education governors, and a former Teacher of the Year who will now serve as Connecticut’s first Black member of Congress. Although many teachers did not win their races, those who did will now be in a position to assert their teacher voice beyond the classroom. Many will join the ranks of their state legislatures, which hold enormous power when it comes to education. Their presence, no matter how small, marks slow progress in the fight to have more teachers represented among those who influence policy and practice.