The Politics of School Boards

The Politics of School Boards

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The Politics of School Boards : The Federal Influence

Introduction

Local school governance for school districts in the United States is provided through local boards of education . State statutes and regulations passed by state boards of education , which provide and operate public schools , charge local school boards with the responsibility of governance . It is the function of the state board to set general school policy and establish guidelines that will ensure the proper administration of the local school program

. State board policy has been increasingly influenced by federal school improvement initiatives these initiatives trickle down to the local policymaking boards and may erode local school board governance authority

Constrained by these mandates , local education boards find that many decisions regarding policy have already been made by the federal government . If local education boards are losing policy and governance authority to federal school improvement initiatives , there should be concern that local education matters are not being addressed . Federal education initiatives indicating a one-size-fits-all fix may not represent and address community issues faced by local boards

The National School Boards Association (NSBA (1994 ) stated "The board 's primary role is the establishment of policy (p . 8 . If the federal government directs policy decisions , local school boards may be moving away from meaningful decision-making . If this is the case , what areas of decision-making and policy are most influenced by the federal government ? If so , there should be concern for the functionality and place of local school boards in the current political and education environment

This focused on the role the federal government plays in influencing local school boards . A lot of sources have analyzed school board writings and research to gauge the effectiveness of local school boards in creating , adopting , implementing , and maintaining policy in the face of federal accountability and federal education improvement initiatives . This focuses on elements that have influenced school board governance . It argues that the federal involvement in public education has continued to increase over the past century and is poised to increase further due to public and private demands for accountability and a world-class education system . It discusses the influence of federal and state education improvement initiatives on local school governance . The accepts the view that the dominant ideological current seems to be headed toward greater decentralization and a diminished role for government

The Rise of Federal Involvement

While the local shift of decision-making was changing , state departments of education began to grow in importance and size as a means of providing uniformity of practice within a state and assuring that districts met certain minimum standards . The main role of state education departments included consolidating rural districts , abolishing decentralized ward committees in cities , giving legal standing and certification to new professional specialists in areas such as counseling or special education , setting standards for buildings and sanitations , mandating new subjects , and reducing disparities of school finance (ECS , 2002

Federal government involvement in education increased as a result of...