Education Research Report: How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education

Education Research Report: How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education:

How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education

A new report, Democracy Left Behind: How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education, by Kenneth Howe and David Meens of the University of Colorado Boulder examines the impact on democratic ideals of vanishing local control over education.

Howe and Meens describe local control as “the power of communities, made up of individuals bound together by common geography, resources, problems and interests, to collectively determine the policies that govern their lives.” As regards schooling, this typically refers to control by elected school boards and their constituents.

Yet the No Child Left Behind Act and subsequent federal policy has forced a surrender of local control. The local role under these systems is largely to be held accountable by state and federal officials. While local discretion is allowed for how to comply with state and federal mandates, the