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96 Nat'l Civic Rev. 2 (2007)

handle is hein.journals/natmnr96 and id is 1 raw text is: Note from the Editor On August 15, 1894, Detroit Mayor Hazen Pingree walked into a meeting of the local school board. Frustrated by the board's noncompliance with a law regulating the awarding of district contracts, the reformist mayor advised recalcitrant board members to resign quietly and save themselves and the city from public embarrassment. When no one volunteered to step down, he ordered the police to cuff four members and march them off the premises. Such a scene would be unimaginable today, but big city may- ors are nevertheless taking a more activist role in dealing with the challenges facing public education. Several urban school districts have experienced mayoral takeovers. Other mayors have used the bully pulpit and their power to convene to guide and improve the performance of local schools. Over the years, growing concern from community leaders, business, and outside agencies about equity and performance have led to recurring cycles of reform and experimentation. Financial crises and political conflicts have triggered direct intervention by municipal, state, and even federal government in local schools governance and administration. At the end of the nineteenth century, urban school boards were similar to local city councils and boards of aldermen. They were large and divided into wards. Membership on a school board was often viewed as a patronage position, and the ward mentality, reformers said, sometimes resulted in cor- rupt contracting practices, balkanization, and a lack of clear lines of accountability. Just as reformers changed the way many cities were governed, reformed school boards in the early 1900s became smaller and were often elected at large. More of an emphasis was put on accountability, clear lines of authority, and professional expertise. Reformers, university presidents, and professors began to take a greater interest in school curriculum and management, and ward-based political leaders lost their clout. Muckrakers wrote about the corruption of school officials and ward leaders. In the 1890s, school boards with more than twenty members were not unusual; by the 1920s, the median number of board members per city was seven. During the 1960s, attitudes about local school boards changed dramatically again. The civil rights movement and the push for greater equity between districts and schools led to an increase in state funding and oversight. Litigation often led to more court-based equalization plans. At the same time, parents began to demand more control over the classroom. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Published online in Wiley InterScience (www.interscience.wiley.com) 2 National Civic Review DOI: 10.1002/ncr.161 Spring 2007 Chicago and New York, among other cities, undertook bold experiments in decentralization and school-site management. Other school districts went from at-large elections for their board members to district elections to ensure that all parts of the city had representation and political clout. More pressures to change came during the 1980s and 1990s. Businesses and political groups charged that public schools were doing a poor job of educating the workforce. A combination of financial crises and ongoing concerns about equity and performance added yet more pressure. State and local officials began to take a more activist role in educa- tional governance. Mayors know that good schools yield political benefits, writes Kenneth Wong, a professor at Brown University, in this issue of the National Civic Review. When mayors are willing to spend their political capital on public education, school- children are likely to benefit from broader public support. Mayoral leadership can reduce the institutional insulation of public schools, sharpen the focus on accountability, and improve organizational and fiscal conditions to support teach- ing and learning. Although mayors and other outside officials have clearly played positive roles in helping improve schools and uniting communities in support of school programs, the changing political realities of school administration raise complex ques- tions about the future of school governance and the model of the elected, independent local board. Barbara Hunter is communications director of the National School Boards Association. Statistically, we don't see an in- crease in appointed boards, she noted in a recent interview. I think that approximately 4 percent of school boards across the country are appointed, while 96 percent are elected. Although the association does not take a position on whether boards should be elected or appointed, Hunter does empha- size that the school board absolutely needs to represent its community, whether it is elected or whether it is appointed, and that means a lot of listening and engaging communities about what they want from schools. We really advocate that school boards listen to their communities and ask their com- munities what they want. The school system needs to serve its community's interests and needs. Michael McGrath Editor interSce -ce

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