Campbell F. Scribner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501700804
- eISBN:
- 9781501704116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700804.003.0003
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
This chapter outlines the history of rural school consolidation, which began in the 1890s but remained contested seventy-five years later, long enough for suburban newcomers to clash and then ...
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This chapter outlines the history of rural school consolidation, which began in the 1890s but remained contested seventy-five years later, long enough for suburban newcomers to clash and then cooperate on the issue with their rural neighbors. The legal and political success of consolidation campaigns enabled states to assert a new role in education, one that was in no way confined to rural areas. Bureaucratic supervision, judicial arbitration, and rising expectations for school funding and administration would become central to later debates about educational opportunity in cities and suburbs. Indeed, the successful consolidation of rural school districts implied that states had both the right and the responsibility to mitigate inequalities between other districts.Less
This chapter outlines the history of rural school consolidation, which began in the 1890s but remained contested seventy-five years later, long enough for suburban newcomers to clash and then cooperate on the issue with their rural neighbors. The legal and political success of consolidation campaigns enabled states to assert a new role in education, one that was in no way confined to rural areas. Bureaucratic supervision, judicial arbitration, and rising expectations for school funding and administration would become central to later debates about educational opportunity in cities and suburbs. Indeed, the successful consolidation of rural school districts implied that states had both the right and the responsibility to mitigate inequalities between other districts.
Campbell F. Scribner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501700804
- eISBN:
- 9781501704116
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700804.003.0008
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
This chapter examines curricular disputes. The roots of curricular conflict frequently lie in changing structures of school governance and realignments of political power. Thus, controversy is never ...
More
This chapter examines curricular disputes. The roots of curricular conflict frequently lie in changing structures of school governance and realignments of political power. Thus, controversy is never simply a question of what children should learn or which educational philosophy should prevail; it is ultimately a struggle between parents, educators, and other interest groups for institutional authority. In the early 1900s, two reforms began the transfer of curricular control from parents and school boards to teachers, librarians, and the state. The first was an expansive interpretation of compulsory attendance laws, which created new legal grounds to limit parental influence in the classroom. The second was school district consolidation, which helped professionalize teaching and modernize coursework, also at the expense of parental involvement. These changes would set the terms of debate for a century to come, framing curricular reform as a competition between local democracy and professional autonomy.Less
This chapter examines curricular disputes. The roots of curricular conflict frequently lie in changing structures of school governance and realignments of political power. Thus, controversy is never simply a question of what children should learn or which educational philosophy should prevail; it is ultimately a struggle between parents, educators, and other interest groups for institutional authority. In the early 1900s, two reforms began the transfer of curricular control from parents and school boards to teachers, librarians, and the state. The first was an expansive interpretation of compulsory attendance laws, which created new legal grounds to limit parental influence in the classroom. The second was school district consolidation, which helped professionalize teaching and modernize coursework, also at the expense of parental involvement. These changes would set the terms of debate for a century to come, framing curricular reform as a competition between local democracy and professional autonomy.
Campbell F. Scribner
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- January 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501700804
- eISBN:
- 9781501704116
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501700804.001.0001
- Subject:
- Education, Educational Policy and Politics
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 ...
More
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. This book 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. The 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. Suburban conservatives carved out new rights for local autonomy, stifling equal educational opportunity. Yet the book 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, the book 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.Less
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. This book 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. The 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. Suburban conservatives carved out new rights for local autonomy, stifling equal educational opportunity. Yet the book 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, the book 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.
