How are Schools Governed, Influenced and Financed? Chapter 11

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How are Schools Governed, Influenced and
Financed?Chapter 11

• Dr. Paul A. Rodriguez

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• Legal responsibility for school governance
  belongs to the state and local school boards.
• Many other groups exercise some measure of
  influence on educational decisions, either
  through legal authority or through less forma
  means
• Court rulings in some states have shifted the
  responsibility for public school financing from
  dependence on local property taxes to greater
  reliance on state support
• The federal governments role in education has
  increased with the passage of the No Child Left
  Behind Act
• State versus local controllegal responsibility
  for school governance belongs to the states,
  policy decisions and administration have
  traditionally been delegated to local school
  boards
• Governors play leadership rolethe governors
  office has the power to affect educational policy
  but often chooses to do so only on limited
  issues.
• Golden Rulegovernors propose and legislatures
  act on budgets that contain funding for school
  districts. This is, the Golden Rule Whoever
  has the Gold makes the rules.

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• Policymaking functionthe states responsibility
  for public education requires it to establish an
  organizational framework within which the local
  school districts can function. The result is the
  establishment of a state board of education to
  exercise general control and supervision of
  schools within the state. The state board of
  education is the states educational policymaking
  body for elementary and secondary schools
• Selection of membersvaries from state to state.
  In most states, members are appointed by the
  governor, in about one-third of the states,
  however, members are elected by popular vote
• Duties of chief state school officerthe
  executive officer of the state board of
  education, the chief state school officer,
  usually is responsible for the administration of
  public education and reports to the state board
  of education
• State department of education, also called the
  state department of pubic education, usually
  operates under the direction of the state board
  of education and is administered by the chief
  state school officer
• The policymaking body of the school district is
  the local school board, which represents the
  citizens

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• In the first place, God made idiots. That was
  for practice. Then he made school boards.
• --Mark Twain, 19th century American Author and
  Humorist
• School boards lack diversitymost are male,
  between forty-one and sixty, at least 83 have
  annual family incomes exceeding 50,000.
  two-thirds of them have at least bachelors
  degrees. Most are professionals, managers or
  business owners have children in the public
  schools and consider themselves to be
  conservative. They are not typical of the public
  they serve
• Superintendent of Schoolsis typically a
  professional educator selected by the local
  school board to act as its executive officer and
  as the educational leader and administrator of
  the school district.
• Superintendents versus Local School Boardsthe
  way they operate with the school board is usually
  characterized by conflict
• High turnover rate often indicative of
  conflictalthough school boards hire and fire
  superintendents, superintendents are expected to
  lead the board. If they fail to do so, board
  members are likely to act independently, often
  with disastrous consequences

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• In building support for their initiatives and
  protecting their programs from attach,
  superintendents must discover their political
  allies and adversaries---no superintendent could
  hope to lead without acting politically
• --Susan Moore Johnson, Professor at Harvards
  Graduate School of Education
• Responsibilities of principalare expected to
  function as instructional leaders for their
  schools. Effective principals serve as
  instructional leaders by promoting a productive
  working and learning environment
• Shortage of principals predictedresearchers are
  predicting a shortage of principals in U. S.
  schools in the coming years
• Teacher organizations are powerful
• Just as was is too important to be left to the
  generals, education is too important to be left
  to the educators
• --Paul Woodring, 20th century American Education
  Author and Professor

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• Site-based decision making, has tended to
  increase teachers power. The key idea behind
  site-based decision making is that most changes
  need to occur at the school level
• Parental influenceparents are their childrens
  first and primary teachers and the only ones who
  follow a childs progress from year to year
• A parent is the most important teacher a child
  ever has
• --Joan Beck, American Author on Child Raising
• Parent-teacher organization (PTO)may or may not
  be affiliated with the national PTA
• Business plays leading role in reformbusiness
  has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to
  improve elementary and secondary schools
• Education/economy linkmany business leaders are
  convinced that education reform is essential to
  the health of the U. S. economy
• Business intrusionsome people cynically view
  businesss push for the expanded use of
  technology in schools as an attempt to create a
  new market for computers and other educational
  technology

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• Channel One controversya commercial service that
  delivers ten minutes of news programming directly
  to public school classrooms free of cost in
  exchange for two minutes of advertising
  http//www.channelone.com
• The classroom isa place in which the claims of
  various political, social and economic interest
  are negotiated. The classroom is both a symbol
  and a product of deadly serious cultural
  bargaining
• --Neil Postman, American Professor, Media
  Theorist and Cultural Critic
• Privatization effortssome believe that private
  corporations can operate schools more effectively
  and less expensively than can public entities
• Cooperation or exploitationthe challenge for
  educators will be to walk the fine line between
  partnerships and cooperation on the one hand and
  exploitation for commercial purposes on the other
  hand
• Strong court influencethe Supreme Court has
  issued key rulings affecting such important
  educational policies as desegregation, public aid
  to private schools, rights of people with
  disabilities, gender equity, voucher plans and
  sexual harassment
• Enforcement necessarythe courts cannot do
  everything by themselves. Often judicial rulings
  need to be supported by federal administrative
  and legislative action before they can alter
  educational practice

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• Fluctuating federal involvementlevel of
  involvement in education often fluctuates
  depending on whether Republicans or Democrats
  control the White House and Congress and on the
  particular ideology professed by the party in
  power
• Funding percentages varythe percentages of
  educational expenditures funded by federal, state
  and local sources vary considerably from state to
  state
• Rising expenditures per pupilvaries from state
  to state
• Sources of state revenuestate government use a
  combination of sales, personal income, corporate
  income and excise taxes to generate revenues
• Local governments use property taxrely primarily
  on property taxes for income
• Michigan reformvoted to eliminate local property
  taxes as a source of revenue for the public
  schools. They increased sales tax by 50 and
  raised taxes on cigarettes to replace the greatly
  reduced property tax, thereby permitting the
  state to reallocate state resources to poorer
  school districts

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• Serrano v. Priestheld that California system of
  financing schools on the basis of local property
  taxes violated the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.
  S. Constitution, which provides equal protection
  of the law for all citizens
• Equality as a state concernmany states contain
  equal protection clauses that can be interpreted
  to include education as a protected right
• Pressures for equalityeducators, parents and
  public officials are greatly concerned that the
  quality of a childs education should not depend
  on whether the child lives in a school district
  with high property values
• Categorical aidmoney that must be spent for
  designated purposes stated generally in the
  legislation and more precisely by the federal
  agency administering the funds
• Block grantssums of money that come with only
  minimal federal restrictions and are transferred
  from the federal government to the state
  governments as a block of money rather than by
  categories
• Compensatory educationis an approach to creating
  more equal educational opportunities for
  disadvantaged children

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• Title I requirementsElementary and Secondary
  Education Act (ESEA), 1965. improving the
  Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged because
  of money reaches almost every school district and
  thus provides jobs and services in every
  congressional district. Under the 2001
  reauthorization of ESEAcalled the No Child Left
  Behind Act (NCLB)Title I has come to account for
  the largest portion of federal spending on public
  schools.
• Title I provided more than 210 billion for
  educational services.
• Head Startvarieties of compensatory education to
  help parents learn how to interact more
  effectively with their babies and young children
  in the areas of cognitive and psychosocial
  development
• Compensatory education beyond preschooltarget
  older children and focus on basic skill
  instruction, tutoring, or remediation in a
  variety of academic areas
• Evaluations mixedthere is mixed results.
  However, long-range studies provide indicators of
  program success.
• Early intervention a keymay provide the key to
  success in compensatory education programs
• Title Ipoints to recent gains in achievement.
  This will continue to receive funding increases
  in the years to come.

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• Key Terms
• Block grants parent-teacher organization (PTO)
• Categorical grants privatization
• Chief state school officer site-based decision
  making
• Compensatory education state board of education
• Head Start state department of education
• Local school board superintendent of schools
• No Child Left Behind Title I
• Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)