Friday, February 16, 2007

Multer: Local school control has limits

Bangor Daily News, February 15, 2007

(excerpt) Local control has long been a slogan in Maine. "We are a local control state" is part of the gospel of Maine. "That will destroy local control," some say when they want to kill an education-related proposal. In fact, the term "local control" is used primarily to defeat rather than to support. All too often, "local control" is used to hammer down anything that is seen to threaten the power of the state’s 290 school boards and the 152 superintendents they employ.

In the beginning, schooling was indeed, local. It was paid for and run entirely by local residents. They hired the teacher and oversaw the curriculum. And why not? The students were local boys and girls who, in all likelihood, would stay in or near the community as they matured, marrying and raising their own families in the same locale.

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