Governor setting things in motion to get rid of state elected school board.

[brizee]

What a surprise.

I think I might die, from that surprise.

http://www.detroitnews.com/story/opi...tion/98931796/

[detroitsgwenivere]

I'm not surprised either. At every opportunity, the state has worked to consolidate power by wrestling it away from the community level. I'm not saying having local control of everything is a panacea [[pulling up youtube videos of past Detroit school board meetings is enough to make anyone cringe) but people need to feel they have a say in their own lives and their children's futures, even people who are not parents and don't send children to school but pay taxes for it none the less. So far I have yet to see how the state's efforts have done anything to improve the schools since the EFM law was put into place. Why should anyone support giving them even more power?

[Canadian Visitor]

While I'm not a fan for the current governor, nor many who preceded him; I don't see anything intrinsically wrong w/this idea.

Ontario has school boards but they have only a very small amount of flexibility in curriculum and facilities management.

The vast majority of key policies and major funding determinations are made at the provincial level.

There is no 'provincial school board'; decisions at that level are made by the Education Minister and/or cabinet.

Everything is not perfect here; though on balance, I would contend education is in much better shape than in Michigan.

There's some utility in holding the government accountable for educational outcomes, which is hard to do if there are too many intermediaries involved