Local Control

The American colonies were established by settlers from Europe who sought religious freedom that had been denied to them in their homelands. When the first colonial towns were created, local schools became mandatory under the Old Deluder Satan Law of 1647, which required that children attend school so that they could learn to read the Bible. At first, the governance of schools was a function of the town governments. As towns grew in size, however, a separate system for operating and overseeing the local schools was needed, therefore a separate branch of the town government was created for the sole purpose of managing the schools. Beginning in Massachusetts, local committees were elected to act as governing bodies for the local schools, and this concept spread to the other colonies. Local control became the term used to describe the governance of a local school system by a committee (later called a school board) elected by the community to make decisions for the schools. These were decisions regarding issues such as finances, hiring of personnel, curriculum and instructional materials, school buildings and facilities, and others directly affecting the schools. This type of school governance did not have the backing or support of the state or federal governments to govern local [Page 528]schools. Local control has been a school reform issue for many years, but has recently come to the forefront as topics such as school funding inequities, accountability, low test scores, and criticisms of teacher and school quality have become popular with the media and political candidates.

While the U.S. Constitution itself does not contain any reference to providing an educational system for its citizens, it does delegate to the states all those powers not specifically stated within it. One of these important powers, provided under the Tenth Amendment, includes the authority of the states to establish and govern the public schools within their borders. But, because no state can efficiently monitor the daily operations of all of its schools, and because this type of governance would not be consistent with a democratic society, this authority is given to locally elected school boards or boards of education. Local school boards, as political subdivisions of the states, serve the purpose of governing public school districts. Local control involves the decision-making authority of these boards for the schools within their own districts about local instructional, personnel, and operational issues. Some of these issues include hiring, discipline, and termination of staff; attendance, grading, and curriculum; selection of instructional materials; developing the school district's yearly calendar; establishing bus routes; extracurricular activities; fund-raising; and the like. The majority of states have a central department of education that through their legislatures, formulates laws, policies, and regulations affecting education and the operation of schools within the state. All public schools must follow the policies and regulations of the state when creating their own local policies. Examples of the policies and regulations that a state department of education may create include criteria for teacher and administrator certification, graduation requirements for high school students, school finance and district budget procedures, creation of personnel policies, curriculum for all grade levels, standardized testing of students at designated grade levels, school building codes, length of the school year, division of the state into school districts, and others. The local school board makes its decisions about local issues within the framework of these regulations, and sets policies that must be consistent with state laws.

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