Board Ideology Trumps Identity

New causal evidence from an NBER analysis shows that the explicit policy priorities of elected school‑board members—not their demographic identities or professions—drive substantive changes in K–12 outcomes. Electing an equity‑focused member raises low‑income students’ test scores by an amount comparable to a large boost in teacher value‑added (≈0.3–0.4 SD). — If true broadly, this shifts where political energy and accountability should be focused — local school‑board elections and disclosed policy platforms matter for educational inequality and deserve far more public and policy attention.