In our particular situation, we have 18 school districts in one county, all of them having different tax bases. The court said there should be equity. Control of schools Linked to the issue of finances is the question of control. Most public-school systems are governed by elected members of local school boards, with varying input from teachers, parents and community members. Although these boards can be plagued by cantankerous debate and bureaucratic inefficiency, which slow reform and improvement, most U.S. citizens favor local control.
Communities make their decisions on education according to whom they elect to their school boards.
The school boards are legally responsible for making the decisions, but we believe there should be parental and community input. In an attempt to lessen bureaucracy, some school districts have approved experiments in site-based management. These decentralization efforts take such forms as local school councils or collaborative decision-making committees, which allow differing degrees of input from parents, teachers, community members and administrators. In Chicago, for example, a local school council at Amelia Earhart Elementary School on the city's south side, worked with the school's principal, Hellen DeBerry, to reinvigorate the formally troubled school. In Kentucky, a state undergoing much educational reform, most public schools have elected councils of educators and parents who perform the duties once held by school boards.