Part of why I'm involved in a charter school is exactly to get away from autocrats/bureaucrats. We've been revising our policy manual and first look at the district's. Their policy on reviewing books, videos, etc. that can be used in the classroom is monstruous--approvals needed, forms filled out, etc. We chose to delete all that from our policy.
I just thought the article on centralizing education was an interesting perspective, though I may not personally agree with the whole idea. One thing that I could see benefits from centralizing is the NCLB assessments. How do the feds say all students should be 100% proficient in reading, but each state can develop their own assessment? Doesn't that seem wacky? If you're proficient in NY, are you still proficient in CA? Of course I don't like the whole NCLB thing to begin with. I do see the article author's point about school boards and how Joe Blow school board member doesn't necessarily have qualifications.
