School boards are sometimes criticized for blindly rubber-stamping budgets and purchasing proposals that district superintendents set in front of them.
But as heated political battles overtake what once were mundane public meetings, school and district leaders are seeing a shift — one that has implications for how districts spend money.
School board members are increasingly inserting themselves in purchasing decisions related to curriculum, new EdWeek Market Brief survey data found. And a third of district and school administrators expect their influence over buying products and services to grow.
The heavier involvement of school boards could have significant implications for vendors — as well as for the teachers and students who rely on core and supplemental curricular products — since the members of those leadership panels are typically not pedagogical or procurement experts. They’re tasked with representing the interests of parents, students, and the community.
For education companies, making the case to a board that spending on a product or service is a good investment can look quite different than the process of earning teacher and administrator trust.
Most of the more than 100 school and 200 district leaders surveyed by the EdWeek Research Center earlier this year (65 percent) say their school board’s involvement in purchasing will likely stay about the same over the next five years.
However, nearly a quarter, 23 percent, say they expect involvement to increase a little, and another 10 percent say school board members’ roles will rise a lot — a much larger portion than those who say the opposite is true.
Only 2 percent of administrators foresee the school board’s participation declining in the years ahead.
This shift is happening as school boards are under pressure to react to high-profile, politicized controversies about learning, whether the concerns are brought to meetings by members of their own community or by outside advocacy groups.
And survey results are also being published amid an uncertain budget season in many school districts, which in some cases are grappling with declining enrollments, new questions about the Trump administration’s support for longstanding federal programs, and anxieties about the condition of the overall economy.
Stepping Into Curriculum
School board members are also increasingly interested in reviewing specific kinds of purchases, the survey reveals.
The local governing bodies have traditionally had the greatest degree of oversight on purchases of district infrastructure and logistics that are of high interest to parents, such as construction and maintenance, transportation, security systems, and building necessities such as HVAC systems.
Those still top the list when administrators were asked in the 2025 survey which types of purchases their school boards are heavily involved in.
More than half point to new construction and maintenance, while 41 percent say infrastructure is a school board focus. More than 30 percent chose school safety/security products and school transportation, when asked about board involvement over the past few years.
But categories related to learning and instruction notably jumped up the list compared to the first time EdWeek Market Brief asked this question in 2023.
The percentage of administrators who say their school board members are heavily involved in core English/language arts purchases doubled, from 12 percent to 24 percent.
Involvement in core math curriculum spending similarly increased, with 22 percent saying it’s an area where board members have influence, compared to 12 percent previously.
Supplementary English/language arts and math curricula are also areas of heavier school board involvement, jumping to 11 percent and 8 percent from 4 percent and 6 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, fewer district and school leaders say their school board is heavily involved in WiFi purchases (8 percent compared to 16 percent in 2023), devices (20 percent compared to 26 percent two years ago) and social-emotional learning (18 percent, a slight decrease from 21 percent).
Math and English/language arts have dominated the national conversation on K-12 as districts continue to grapple with low post-pandemic test scores.
Many school systems have invested in reading programs meant to provide evidence-based instruction in that subject, and they have also spent heavily on math programs to support struggling students.
English/language arts texts, and to a lesser extent math resources, have been pulled into cultural battles playing out in many states and local school systems in recent years. Some advocates have sought to restrict how lessons about race and gender topics, in particular, can be covered in curricular materials.
Given the current environment, having a school board ask more questions about how the district is spending money throughout the entire budgeting process is a positive step, argues Marguerite Roza, a research professor at Georgetown University and director of the Edunomics Lab, which conducts research on school finance.
“Even where trustees may feel clumsy pressing district employees about spending choices, our system depends on boards playing this governance role,” she wrote in a recent analysis.
The Edunomics research team examined hundreds of hours of 2023 school board budget workshops as part of a federally funded study of financial deliberations. On average, the discussions lasted only 40 minutes, they found.
Around half of the school board members were categorized as “silent observers,” offering no productive comments or feedback, and some acknowledged that their financial knowledge was lacking.
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As part of the study, the Edunomics Lab published a list of questions they’d like to see school boards ask during financial discussions. Those questions offer insights for potential vendors on what inquiries from board members they should be ready to field.
The questions are focused on topics such as the relative ROI and what alternative features or products might offer similar benefits, whether prior spending delivered measurable improvements for students or staff, and what current purchases come with future obligations that may not be affordable.
“When trustees don’t press for a set of options and ask questions about the rationale for choices,” Roza wrote, “district employees miss out on the chance to test their ideas with a larger group.
Takeaways:
School board members are starting to take a more active role in their school districts’ purchasing decisions: About a third of school and district leaders say they expect the involvement of the panels to rise over the next five years.
While these local governing boards still heavily insert themselves into decisions around buildings, infrastructure, transportation, and security, they are also increasingly focusing on curriculum purchases — especially in core math and English/language arts.
Vendors should be prepared to field school board member questions and back up products and services with arguments that will win them over. That’s especially true if they’re delivering academic resources.