What are SMOBs and why are they running for office?

At the end of Matt Post’s term as student member of the Montgomery County school board, the 18-year-old noticed a trend.

Why was it so rare for SMOBs — the insider term for Student Member of the Board — to run for office after graduation?

“The popular theory among student leaders is that whatever goes on in that room and around this table must turn you cynical about policymaking,” Post told his fellow board members at the time.

“The idea goes that this job must make you lose hope in politics.”

That’s not how Post felt in 2018 when he wrapped up his term on the board. The marathon meetings and difficult votes made him believe more than ever in public service, he said.

Now, he’s trying to reverse the trend he identified as a teenager. Post, 26, is running to represent Montgomery County as a delegate in the Maryland General Assembly.

He’s not the only former Montgomery County SMOB on the ballot this year. While Post targets a District 14 seat, Sebastian Johnson is running in District 19.

The two candidates are endorsing each other and have made education issues a cornerstone of their campaigns.

“Our student members of the board were always very committed and extremely smart,” said former Montgomery County Public Schools board member Jill Ortman-Fouse. “And I do see it as a legitimate pipeline.”

Maryland has a history of granting teenagers a voice in school board decisions. Since the 1970s, at least some of the state’s school boards have welcomed student members. The Anne Arundel County SMOB was one of the first in the nation to get full voting rights, back in 1975.

The state’s willingness to give students a seat at the table has produced several vocal advocates.

At least two members of the Maryland State Board of Education are former SMOBs. Another is a leader in the local teachers union. Montgomery County’s first-ever SMOB — David Naimon — is now the president of the elections board.

And while the MCPS seat may not have produced a steady stream of elected officials, Congressman Johnny Olszewski Jr. was the Baltimore County school board SMOB — in 1999.

Post jokes that he’ll need fewer votes to win a District 14 seat than he did to secure his SMOB position, when he was representing more than 160,000 students.

Education issues

Johnson, 37, recently got some work done on his Silver Spring house. And as he cleaned out his bookcase, he found a scrapbook filled with mementos from his year on the school board.

As he flipped through, the heated debates of 2005 came back to him. He recalled lengthy discussions about how to revise the sex education curriculum to include more accurate information about the queer community.

His SMOB platform centered on some key issues: Increased funding for campus construction and closing the achievement gap, including by encouraging more children of color to enroll in honors classes.

Those issues remain relevant today — and members of the General Assembly have the power to influence them.

If elected, Johnson says he’ll push to automatically enroll qualified students in advanced math courses, a legislative approach that’s made a marked difference in several other states.

Post, too, is campaigning with specific education-related ideas. He wants to provide free meals to every child, require central office staff to substitute teach, and fund a “special education support hotline” for the parents of children with disabilities.

Voting rights

When the first SMOB joined the Montgomery County board in 1978, he was able to participate in meetings but not allowed to vote.

The student member’s clout has gradually expanded. The SMOB serving today — Anuva Maloo — has voting power nearly equal to that of the seven adult members. She cast a vote on revamping high school programming, campus boundary lines and many other consequential decisions this year. (She can’t vote on negative personnel actions.)

Several Maryland school boards give their teenage members a real say in policymaking, which has sparked controversy in recent years.

The Howard County school board deadlocked over whether to reopen campuses during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic, with the student member voting to prevent schools from returning to in-person classes.

That triggered a lawsuit from two parents, who unsuccessfully attempted to strip the student member’s right to vote.

“The legislature has empowered a minor to make decisions that should be beyond the minor’s reach,” their lawsuit stated.

More than 100 former SMOBs pushed back against the lawsuit, filing a brief that argued students have an essential role to play in making decisions that affect them and their classmates.

Among the brief’s signatories were Post and Johnson.

It’s ultimately the General Assembly that grants voting powers to SMOBs, determining if their influence should expand or contract.

That means that if the two men are elected, they could one day weigh in on the rights of their successors.