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Resident Scholar Frederick M. Hess

Are elected school boards equal to the challenges of twenty-first century school governance? Eli Broad, a leading educational philanthropist and founder of the Broad Prize for Urban Education, has argued, “I believe in mayoral control of school boards or having no school board at all. We have seen many children benefit from this type of crisis intervention. . . . You should craft legislation that enables school board members to be appointed by the mayor. . . [and] limit the authority of school boards [1].” Chester Finn, president of the Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, has written, “School boards are an aberration, an anachronism, an educational sinkhole. . . . Put this dysfunctional arrangement out of its misery [2].” The most popular alternative is the call to disband elected boards and give their authorities to school boards appointed by the mayor.

The nation’s nearly 15,000 school boards are charged with providing the leadership, policy direction, and oversight that can drive school improvement. Nationally, about 96 percent of districts have elected boards, including more than two-thirds of the nation’s 25 largest districts[3]. However, after decades of largely ineffectual reform, it is far from clear that school boards are equal to the challenge. Broad, Finn, and others believe schools require more accountable and disciplined leadership than elected school boards can provide. The most popular alternative is replacing elected big-city school boards with boards that are, in some fashion or other, appointed by the mayor.

Notes:

1. Broad, Eli. Address. The National Governors Association Education Policy Advisors Institute. Ritz Carlton Hotel, Marina del Rey, CA. 4 Apr. 2003.
2. Elizabeth, Jane. “School Boards’ Worth in Doubt: Some Think Members Are in Over Their Heads Due to Complex Duties.” Pittsburgh Post-Gazette 30 November 2003. 9 October 2006. <http://www.postgazette.com/localnews/20031130boardsmainlocal2p2.asp >. For a further discussion, see Finn, Chester E. “Reinventing Local Control,” School Boards: Changing Local Control. Eds. Patricia F. First and Herbert J. Walberg. Berkeley: McCutchan Publishing, 1992.
3. Hess, Frederick M. “School Boards at the Dawn of the 21st Century: Conditions and Challenges of District Governance.” Alexandria: National School Boards Association, 2002.

Frederick M. Hess is a resident scholar and director of education policy studies at AEI.