NEPC Report; Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control
Report; Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control
Cautions…Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control
Reference Publication:How Recent Education Reforms Undermine Local School Governance and Democratic Education | National Education Policy Center
Contact:
William J. Mathis, (802) 383-0058, Ken.Howe@Colorado.edu
Kenneth Howe, (303) 492-7229, Ken.Howe@Colorado.edu
URL for this press release: New Report Cautions Against Federal Education Policies that Undermine Democracy and Local Control
BOULDER, CO October 16, 2012 – “Local control” has been a bedrock principle of public schooling in America since its earliest days, but a new report concludes the concept “has all but disappeared” in discussions of education policy.
The 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. The report examines the making of education policy as well as the decisions about what schools teach and how they teach it.
The report is published today by the National Education Policy Center (NEPC) at the University of Colorado Boulder.
In a healthy democracy, schools play a key role in preparing citizens. A healthy democracy also depends on citizens engaged in democratic governance. And since schools sit at the center of most communities, local democratic control over schooling has long been highly valued in the United States.
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