ABSTRACT

Devolution of decision making within the state public school systems was a key factor of the commonwealth government programs designed to improve Australian education during the 1970s and early 1980s. In the blueprint for reform of the Interim Committee for the Australian Schools Commission (1973) entitled Schools In Australia, it was clearly stated that schools would be better places if the centralized control of schools by state education authorities were loosened. This was a radical notion: since the late nineteenth century, public schooling was provided for the substantial majority ofchildren through centrally organized state school systems. The maintenance ofa highly centralized administration seemed the best way by which education ofcomparable quality could be guaranteed across the states (Mossenson, 1972). The large, centralized state education departments seemed to be permanent features of the public administration landscape.