ABSTRACT
The impulse to do something radical about the big urban school district is now visible in cities all across the country. Sometimes the impulse comes from within the board. More and more frequently, however, it is coming from the state. Witness these examples;
In May 1995, the Illinois Legislature removed the Chicago board of education and its superintendent and gave the mayor sweeping powers to change and improve the schools, free of many of the usual constraints. The law also strengthened the local school councils. The legislature created the councils in 1988, at the urging of neighbourhood groups and business/civic organizations and over the objections of the board, superintendent and union.
In New Jersey, the state has taken over school systems in Jersey City and Paterson and will now, it appears, take over Newark. Illinois has taken over East St Louis. In Ohio, the federal court has ordered the state to take over Cleveland.
Baltimore hired a contract manager for a part of its system. Hartford has put its entire system out to private contract management. In Minneapolis, the board has gone to contract for 'district leadership services'
Bills to 'break up' Los Angeles Unified have so far been resisted successfully. Inside the district, the debate now is whether the district should continue to resist or should come forward with a plan of its own to pre-empt state action. In Milwaukee the resignation of Superintendent Howard Fuller revived the idea of a break up among some legislators. In Minnesota Representative John Sarna sponsored a bill to divide Minneapolis into wedges and to annex each wedge to an adjacent suburb. The Minneapolis district would dissolve.
In Boston, the schools were moved back into the framework of general local government.
The Pittsburgh area is debating a plan for a countywide board with oversight responsibility for autonomous schools.
In New York City, the chancellor and local community districts are creating small, new high schools working without legislation and around the bureaucracy.
