Governing Public Schools: New Times, New Requirements

Local school governance, largely untouched by the nation's education reform agenda, has become critical to it. Now that fundamental, systemic change is being called for, the performance of school boards is under greater scrutiny, especially in urban areas. This book proposes a very important next step for us to take: an honest evaluation of the role of local school boards in delivering quality education to every child. Local education governing boards face enormous responsibilities and require extremely high levels of knowledge and insight. They demand levels of leadership that must transcend local politics and special interests. Their constituency becomes the national community rather that the school community that elected them. Such connectedness between each child's success and our country's success should compel us to ask the tough questions about how school boards will respond to the challenge, or whether they can respond effectively. We cannot be shy about looking at the successes and failures of 15,000 local systems of education that drive our national competitiveness. We must realistically assess how the roles and responsibilities of these boards and their individual members can be supported and redefined to achieve our objectives. There is no single cause of our problems. Reform efforts must continue on all fronts.