This just in from the National School Boards Association: Local school boards “under siege”
From NSBA, Local control under siege
The ability of local boards to control the destiny of their own schools, rooted in the establishment of one-room school houses in America’s rural farming communities, is under siege on several fronts, a panel of experts warned in a presentation Saturday titled School Boards’ Last Stand.
Threats to local control often are characterized as educational reform, the panelists said, and they include: charter schools, bids for mayoral control, voucher programs, virtual charter schools, for-profit school operators, state and federal funding tied to adoption of specific programs and approaches, and efforts to standardize curriculum and textbooks.
“We are rapidly becoming the educational equivalent of local McDonald’s franchises,” said David Little, director of governmental affairs for the New York State School Boards Association. “It will feed you, but it’s not the optimal meal.”
Historically, Little traced the trend to the time when individual states began putting the obligation to provide
The ability of local boards to control the destiny of their own schools, rooted in the establishment of one-room school houses in America’s rural farming communities, is under siege on several fronts, a panel of experts warned in a presentation Saturday titled School Boards’ Last Stand.
Threats to local control often are characterized as educational reform, the panelists said, and they include: charter schools, bids for mayoral control, voucher programs, virtual charter schools, for-profit school operators, state and federal funding tied to adoption of specific programs and approaches, and efforts to standardize curriculum and textbooks.
“We are rapidly becoming the educational equivalent of local McDonald’s franchises,” said David Little, director of governmental affairs for the New York State School Boards Association. “It will feed you, but it’s not the optimal meal.”
Historically, Little traced the trend to the time when individual states began putting the obligation to provide