Kris Peterson

Issue Outline

What is your issue?

Have school boards become outdated and irrelevant in our modern times?

Who does your issue

involve?

U.S. Public Schools: School Board Members, Superintendents,

Administrators, Teachers, Students, Support Staff, Parents. Local
governments, Mayors, State governments, Departments of Education,
Governors, Federal government, Congress.

How is your issue

impacting education
today?

School boards in many school districts have been unable to raise student
achievement to meet Federal mandates and regulations. In many smaller
communities, boards are spending their time dealing with property and
human resource management instead of education issues. The focus is no
longer on children first. This has allowed the idea of privatizing schools to
flourish.

Why is this issue

controversial?

Those that support school boards say that only a local board can
understand the community and the children that are in it, and that there is
no proof that eliminating the school board raises student academic
achievement. Those that oppose say school boards are outdated, puppets
for special interests, and that with the diversity of student opportunities,
i.e. charter, online providers, etc., the schools should be run by the States
to standardize curriculum across all of the different school choices.

List the three articles

you read about your
issue.

*Changing the System Is the Only Solution, M. Tucker, Taking Sides:

Clashing Views on Educational Issues 18/e, 2014, McGraw Hill.
*Why Public Schools Need Democratic Governance, D. Ravitch,
Taking Sides: Clashing Views on Educational Issues 18/e, 2014, McGraw
Hill.
*How to Run Public Schools in the 21st Century, by C. Finn, Jr.,
http://educationnext.org/how-to-run-public-schools-in-the-21st-century/

Identify an
organization and tell
their view.

NEA National Education Association: The NEA bitterly opposes

having schools privatized. They feel that Privatization = a cut in
services for the school, a cut in benefits and wages for employees, and a
risk to safety for students and families. Private contractors have no
connection to the community and thus, cant service the community
interests as well as a local school board.

Kris Peterson