Controlling Public Education: Localism Versus Equity

Amazon.com Price: $18.95 (as of 06/05/2019 10:54 PST- Details)

Categories: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Description

Most Americans imagine that local school districts are the only means by which citizens may exercise keep an eye on over public education. Kathryn McDermott argues to the contrary that existing local institutions are no longer sufficient for achieving either equity or democratic governance. Not only is local keep an eye on inequitable, it also fails to live up to its reputation for guaranteeing public participation and citizen influence. Drawing upon democratic theory and the results of field research in New Haven, Connecticut, and three suburbs, McDermott contends that our educational system can be made more democratic by centralizing keep an eye on over funding whilst decentralizing most authority over schools to the level of schools themselves whilst enacting public school choice controlled for racial balance.

To many people in Connecticut and elsewhere, the tension between equal opportunity for all students and local keep an eye on of public education seems unimaginable to unravel. In 1996, the Connecticut Supreme Court ruled in Sheff v. O’Neill that local keep an eye on produces unconstitutional segregation of public schools. Nearly all of the state’s 169 towns operate their own public schools, and, like the towns they serve, the schools are generally homogeneous with respect to race and socioeconomic class. In the Sheff ruling, the court declared that making school districts coterminous with town lines “is the single most important factor contributing to the present concentration of racial and ethnic minorities in the Hartford public school system.” At the same time, the court also acknowledged that the town-based school system “presently furthers the legitimate nonracial interests of permitting considerable local keep an eye on and accountability in educational matters.”

In Connecticut and elsewhere, it has continuously seemed necessary to make a choice from local keep an eye on and equity in public education, and local keep an eye on has almost all the time won. McDermott argues that rather than seeing local keep an eye on and equity as conflicting goals, policymakers should regard them as equally important components of democracy in public education. In her view, a in point of fact democratic system of education should both encourage citizen participation in school governance and contribute to the formation and maintenance of a social order in which equality of opportunity prevails over hierarchies of privilege. Centralizing distribution of resources and using controlled choice to end racial isolation would provide greater equality of opportunity, whilst decentralizing management of schools would expand citizen participation.

McDermott’s conclusions break new ground in our understanding of local school governance itself and call into question the conventional wisdom about local participation. These findings should interest those who study school governance and reform—especially in an urban setting—as well as policy makers, administrators, teachers, students, and citizens eager to reinforce their schools.

Related products

Home » Shop » Books » Subjects » Arts and Photography » History and Criticism » History » Americas » United States » State and Local » Controlling Public Education: Localism Versus Equity

Recent Products