6 Local Control
The local control approach to public education is one with a long and storied history. Prior to the mid-twentieth century, public elementary and secondary education in the United States was primarily a local affair, operated and overseen by community leaders (Kaestle 1983) (Arnzen and Houston 2023). This local control has evolved from more informal community leaders making decisions to the establishment of democratically elected, nonpartisan local school boards holding these powers. States and the federal government assumed greater authority over education in the latter half of the twentieth century, bringing up the question of where the power of making decisions relating to public education should be held. Historically, the majority of the public has preferred highly localized decision making, which allows education systems to directly reflect the preferences of those in the community (Arnzen and Houston 2023). This allows parents to have more influence in what their children are learning based on their own and their communities’ values and priorities.
While this can be very positive, it can also exacerbate inequities in public schools. The issue of public school funding being related to tax dollar allocations has been a more widely publicized issue in conversations surrounding inequity in public education; I myself was a “school of choice kid,” obtaining my education from a nearby school district in which I did not live partially because the residents of the city were wealthier than those in my city and the school’s budget was much higher. The results of these differences in budgets even between schools within a few miles of each other were very apparent. Growing up just outside of Detroit, it was hard not to notice the vast change in infrastructure when crossing the official city limit line between Detroit and the far wealthier neighborhood of Grosse Pointe. While on the northern side of the boundary in Grosse Pointe the streets were lined with a Whole Foods, pristine landscaping, and well-preserved historic homes, you could literally stand on that line and turn around to see a seemingly completely different street—one instead lined with fast food chains, liquor stores, and crumbling homes with boarded up windows.
This stark contrast was perhaps even more evident between my experience with education and that of my high school friend who attended a Detroit Public School. While my participation in the Schools of Choice program allowed me to go to a high school with a courtyard, Chromebooks provided by the school, and socially conscious organizations like the Queer-Straight Alliance club, my friend witnessed two physical fights, one of which required an ambulance to be called to the school, just on her very first day of freshman year. Her teachers were paid far less than those in my district which was in some cases reflected by their enthusiasm, and she was never able to learn some of the content I was taught in my school because