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.tweeterHover { color:#2276BB !important; font-size: 12px; }.tweeterHover a:link { color:#2276BB !important; text-decoration:none !important; }.tweeterHover a:visited { color:#2276BB !important; text-decoration:none !important; }.tweeterHover a:hover { color:#2276BB !important; text-decoration:underline !important; }.tweeterHover a:active { color:#2276BB !important; text-decoration:none !important; }.tweeterHover { margin: 0; padding: 0; border: 0; font-size: 100%; line-height: 1; list-style: none; }.tweeterHover { font: 12px ‘Lucida Grande’, Verdana, Verdana, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; }This one is way out of left field, but it didn’t take me long to realize that there’s a significant change coming. You don’t have to watch the actions of Secretary Arne Duncan for long to start to wonder this question.
With all of the external pressures and increasing controls, fully ranging from inputs to outputs, revenues to graduation testing, is there a need for the local, lay school board anymore? So much of what a school board used to manage and maintain has been removed by states and, vicariously through states, the federal government via direct legislation or other mandates tied to revenues. Are we living under a false sense that boards ARE in control today? Could the consolidation of boards be a good thing as the pool of volunteer, educationally-minded, business-experienced, and politically-interested community leaders shrinks further.
Could boards be replaced with a new system implementing a national standard using national taxes funneled through states (a la ARRA) guarantee equality of access (like the new health care system) better than today’s system of thousands of quasi-independent bodies each interpreting the rules differently.
But what of states rights or the opinions of local communities? How will communities exercise their freedoms, if there ever were any?
Hard questions, but technology fully supports a more unified system. And yet, because we can, do we — should we?
[This is a repost from an entry on School Board 2.0.]
Jim McLaughlin's Blog 