1. When School Districts Regain Control: The Political Economy of State Takeover of Local School and its Withdrawal.
- Author
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Wong, Kenneth K., Langevin, Warren E., and Shen, Francis X.
- Subjects
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SCHOOL districts , *SCHOOL administration , *UNITED States education system , *EDUCATION policy , *SCHOOL centralization - Abstract
This paper examines the political and economic dimensions of state takeover of local school districts in a theoretical framework that reveals the intergovernmental tensions evident in restoring local control after a contentious period of state intervention. Over the course of the past fifteen years, state takeover has generated not only the strongest resistance from local officials of any policy innovation to reinvigorate the performance of local education agencies within the American public education system, but also the most diverse set of results in the duration and extent of state involvement at the district level. What accounts for this variation? And, more importantly, what does the emergence of state takeover signify for the future of the intergovernmental system in the context of American public education? In this paper, the authors present preliminary findings from a national quantitative analysis of local school districts that have been subject to state takeover and have since regained local control, as well as empirical case studies of two states, Alabama and Kentucky, where state authorities have restored local control in at least eleven local school districts. An analytical consideration of the effects of state takeover on decision-making authority at the district level, fiscal and resource allocation, and the consequences of local capacity and local culture demonstrates that 1) local autonomy is conditional based on acceptable performance as defined by the state, 2) the sequential progression of state takeover in reforming the mode of local governance as well as the variable nature of duration necessitate more consideration by policymakers seeking to enhance performance accountability, 3) economic factors may have less to do with the return of local control than politics, and 4) the significance of unemployment and debt measures in contributing to the duration of state takeover has the potential to fundamentally reshape our understanding of intergovernmental relations and state policy leadership. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]
- Published
- 2004
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