Education Law

An unexpected trend?

Our friends at NSBA’s free weekly Legal Clips e-newsletter have pointed out a potential trend that BoardBuzz hopes we might see more of. It’s one you might not expect at a time when the national mood overall is for a lot more accountability and government oversight.

In this item that ran in yesterday’s issue, Legal Clips highlights state legislatures that are reconsidering how much regulation they’ve piled on schools in recent years. First, Oklahoma is the scene of a big showdown over giving school districts the same kind of flexibility state lawmakers already have seen fit to give charter schools. That’s long overdue consistency from the many politicians who extol charter schools at the same time they’re busily regulating school districts more and more. But the explosive issue lurking in the Oklahoma legislation is its implications for teacher collective bargaining: It’s not required for Oklahoma charters. The Oklahoma State School Boards Association figures prominently in the debate.

The other states highlighted are Washington, Florida, and Georgia, as well as several states that have been reconsidering their statewide laws, often tourism-influenced, dictating local school calendars. Check it out. And BoardBuzz hears California is another state to watch on this question as it deals with its budget problems.

And those budget problems are a big part of what’s happening here. State legislators who were budgeting more and more for schools over the years were powerfully tempted to play school board on all kinds of minutiae. Now that they’re cutting education budgets, some of them apparently are finding it a little harder to ignore how much their mandates drive up local costs.

That’s not to say we’re necessarily embarking on a new era of school flexibility. We don’t yet know what the new federal role in education will end up looking like, and certainly on some issues we’re likely to see stronger accountability, not less. 

But  school boards can take some comfort if there’s at least some more careful thinking about the difference between accountability and micromanagement. After all, that’s a distinction effective school boards think about constantly.

By the way, if you don’t already get NSBA’s Legal Clips, give it a try. This week’s issue also featured cool things like NSBA’s brief in the Supreme Court’s upcoming case on funding for English language learners, mayoral control of urban schools, the Arizona Supreme Court’s unanimous decision striking down two voucher programs, and an unsuccessful lawsuit by a superintendent victimized by botched Fox News commentary.

Full post as published by BoardBuzz: NSBA's Daily Weblog on March 27, 2009 (boomark / email).