Provenzo, Chapter 6
Local and State Involvement
in U.S. Education
Bureaucrac
y
Complex, highly structured
•
• Social organization
• Designed to carry out a specific task
• Positions having specific responsibilities and
duties
Bureaucracy
• Stratified and
hierarchical
• Encourages
specialization
• Formal,
impersonal
procedures
School Boards
• body of laypersons
• ever-changing in membership
• individuals seldom entrenched
• responsible to local voters
• weak in certain respects
• power to legislate, administer, function as
semi-adjudicator
• define educational standards
• determine goals, ideals which district
pursues
(along with the superintendent)
School Boards
A U.S. invention:
•“In the first place God made
idiots. This was for practice.
Then he made School Boards.”
Mark Twain
“Every time you stop a school,
you will have to build a jail.”
Mark Twain
Old Deluder Satan Act of 1647:
• 50 or more families:
establish public elementary
school
• 100 or more families:
Latin grammar school
Contemporary School Boards
• About 75% of school board
members elected.
• Expected to reflect the beliefs and
values of the community.
• Most often they are white, middleaged, married professionals whose
children attend public schools.
• More women on boards in recent
years.
• Men dominate school boards.
•Mike Akervik
•Mary Cameron
•Laura Condon
•Mary Glass-LeBlanc
•Garry Krause
•Robert S. Mars Jr.
•Dorothy John Neumann
•Robert D. Nygaard
•Harry Welty
School Boards
• ratifiers who legitimatize the recommendations
of administrators (policy initiators)
• negotiators who mediate conflicts
• educational advocates who want to improve
specific programs within the schools
• judges who pass judgment on teachers and
administrators
• administrators and budget analysts who
scrutinize how every penny is spent and how
the superintendent makes decisions
• gossipers who keep an eye on everything going
on inside the school district;
Minnesota
School Districts
Principals
•administrative officer
•full time job
•165, 000 administrators in the U.S.
•predominantly men.
•7% are female
• 96% white
Principals
• Five basic tasks for most
principals:
–
–
–
–
instructional program
staff
student personnel
financial and physical
resources
– school-community relations
The Superintendent of Schools
• Supervises principals
• Sets the tone for teaching, learning in the schools.
• Extremely vulnerable:
– hired and fired by the school board
– subject to the pressure of parents
local interest groups, and teachers
• Elements that determine success:
–
–
–
–
educational qualifications
concept of own role
relationship with board of education
Longevity within district
Superintendents
influence
–salaries
–promotions
–assignments within
the school district.
Financing Schools
• Most funds from local and state taxes
– district’s wealth determines to a large degree the services
its schools provide.
– rural school districts and poor urban areas: limited tax
revenues--obvious disadvantage in raising money to
support their public schools
• San Antonio v. Rodriquez (1973) asserted that equal education
is not guaranteed by the Constitution
• The inherent inequity of resources in different school districts
can be overcome to some extent by providing state and federal
aid to poorer school districts.
• About 100,000 private and public schools in the U.S.
Financing
• Federal support for local school
districts includes:
– aid for children of economically
disadvantaged families (Title I of the
Elementary and Secondary Education
Act (ESEA) of 1965.
• State funding responsibility
increasing.
State Involvement
• Education is a state authority but
locally administered.
• The state certifies teachers, but
local officials review their
credentials.
• The state usually reviews and
adopts textbooks, but local boards
of education buy and use them.
Federal Involvement
• 10th Amendment: Not having been delegated to the federal
government, the administration and control of public
education became a local responsibility.
• Well into the 19th century, private and religious schools
predominated over public tax-supported schools.
• Modern federal involvement: 1958 and the passage of the
National Defense Education Act.
• In reaction to Russian Sputnik: federal government
designated special funds for training people in science,
mathematics, and foreign languages—important areas for
national security.
Federal Involvement
• Great Society Legislation: 1963 and 1968:
–
–
–
–
Higher Education Facilities Act
Vocational Education Amendment
Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965)
Bilingual Education Act (1968)
• Under legislation passed since the 1960s the
federal government can withhold financial
support to organizations in violation of federal
statutes.
• The threat of withdrawing federal assistance for
programs prompted important changes and
reforms at the local level…most clearly seen in
civil rights legislation.
Case studies
• Review content
Identify problem
• State problem
State objective
List constraints, assumptions, facts
• Collect relevent
Generating possible solutions
information
Determining likely solution
• Develop alternatives Analyzing, evaluating solution
Reporting, implementing, checking results
• Select course of action
• Schedule
recommended solution
• Evaluate results
Case study: beaurocracy
Review content: school(s) face 10, 50 million dollar budget shortfalls
State problem: decision making, quality conintuance, audience acceptance
Collect relevant information: 10 million/50 million biennial budget problem for institution
Develop alternatives:
Select course of action
Schedule recommended solution
Evaluate results
Case study: beaurocracy
Content:
•
beaurocratic decision making
Problem:
• district faces 10 million dollar funding shortfall over two years
Relevant information:
• 30 schools $2 million each annually;
• 500 teachers: $40 thousand each annually;
• 40 administrators $100 thousand annually;
• expanding schools to accommodate increased enrollment would
cost $2 million per school—for a one-time investment
1. Develop alternatives
2. Select course of action
3. Schedule recommended solution
4. Evaluate results