| Description |
1 online resource. |
|
text file PDF |
| Physical Medium |
polychrome |
| Series |
American institutions and society
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American institutions and society.
|
| Bibliography |
Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| Contents |
The meaning of local control -- The long history of school district consolidation -- The exurban exchange -- The struggle for status -- The fight for funding -- Tax revolts -- The battle of ideas -- Redefining parents' rights. |
| Summary |
Throughout the twentieth century, local control of school districts was one of the most contentious issues in American politics. As state and federal regulation attempted to standardize public schools, conservatives defended local prerogative as a bulwark of democratic values. Yet their commitment to those values was shifting and selective. In The Fight for Local Control, Campbell F. Scribner demonstrates how, in the decades after World War II, suburban communities appropriated legacies of rural education to assert their political autonomy and in the process radically changed educational law. Scribner's account unfolds on the metropolitan fringe, where rapid suburbanization overlapped with the consolidation of thousands of small rural schools. Rural residents initially clashed with their new neighbors, but by the 1960s the groups had rallied to resist government oversight. What began as residual opposition to school consolidation would transform into campaigns against race-based busing, unionized teachers, tax equalization, and secular curriculum. In case after case, suburban conservatives carved out new rights for local autonomy, stifling equal educational opportunity. Yet Scribner also provides insight into why many conservatives have since abandoned localism for policies that stress school choice and federal accountability. In the 1970s, as new battles arose over unions, textbooks, and taxes, districts on the rural-suburban fringe became the first to assert individual choice in the form of school vouchers, religious exemptions, and a marketplace model of education. At the same time, they began to embrace tax limitation and standardized testing, policies that checked educational bureaucracy but bypassed local school boards. The effect, Scribner concludes, has been to reinforce inequalities between districts while weakening participatory government within them, keeping the worst aspects of local control in place while forfeiting its virtues. |
| Local Note |
eBooks on EBSCOhost EBSCO eBook Subscription Academic Collection - North America |
| Language |
In English. |
| Subject |
Education and state -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Education and state. |
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United States. |
|
History. |
| Chronological Term |
20th century |
| Subject |
Education -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Education -- Political aspects. |
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Democracy and education -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Democracy and education. |
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Educational change -- Political aspects -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Educational change -- Political aspects. |
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Educational change. |
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Suburban schools -- United States -- History -- 20th century.
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Suburban schools. |
| Chronological Term |
1900-1999 |
| Genre/Form |
Electronic books.
|
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History.
|
| Other Form: |
Print version: Scribner, Campbell F., 1981- Fight for local control. Ithaca : Cornell University Press, 2016 9781501700804 (DLC) 2015038569 (OCoLC)927104136 |
| ISBN |
9781501704116 (electronic book) |
|
1501704117 (electronic book) |
|
9781501700804 |
|
1501700804 |
| Standard No. |
10.7591/9781501704116 |
|
