CAP Looks at Local Control

While the Senate continues its deliberate drafting on Title I Part A and Title II Part A of No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act, education pundits ponder the future federal role in education. It is all but certain that things will change, but how and when is quite speculative. Congressional Republican and Democratic leadership are both seeking a new approach without compromising the core principles of the law. This balancing act will be difficult and the challenge commands more focus than election year politics may allow. The quality of discussion in Congress, thus far in 2008, has been middling at best.

The discussion has been more interesting off Capitol Hill. For example, the American Enterprise Institute has been hosting many forum discussions of the changing federal role. On March 20th, the Education Sector is hosting a sold out forum on the evolving federal role in education, and, this week, the Center for American Progress released a thoughtful examination of the unique American “obsession with local control” in the new report Nationalize the Schools (… A Little)! It is significant that, despite the political orientation of these organizations, all are coalescing around a more nationalized system of education accountability, an accountability system quite unlike the current NCLB regime.

In Nationalize the Schools, Matt Miller makes his argument by providing the reader with a brief trip through history to identify the roots of local control. “A look at the history of local control as the organizing principle of schooling suggests that an approach that made perfect sense in the 1700s is crippling American education today.” It is crippling, in part, because there are 50 states and 15,000 school districts all setting their own standards and accountability measures, meanwhile the U.S. Department of Education (ED) is trying to coalesce these actions with NCLB’s objectives. It is not working, argues Miller.

In lieu of the current efforts, Miller suggests that the federal role should not be to micromanage the methods of accountability and interventions. ED should, instead, work with states to set rigorous national standards, increase the federal investment and provide a guaranteed baseline for funding per pupil, and to invest in research and development in order to promote innovation in teaching and learning techniques. Miller asserts, generally, that the new federal role must transcend the out-dated tradition of local control. He believes that ED needs to get serious about a new national role in standards and finance that will help the nation meet the challenges of today’s international economy.

The document is brief and, consequently, lacks many critical details, but was not designed for that purpose. Mr. Miller intended it to spark discussion in Washington and capture the attention of Congress. That is happening, albeit slowly, and it is an issue worth tracking in the coming months and years.

Resource:
Matt Miller, Nationalize the Schools (...A Little)! (Center for American Progress: March 2003), http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/2008/03/nationalize_the_schools.html.
Author: DAD