Popular control ensures that people in power know and respond to the interests and preferences of the rest of us. This notion of community involvement as seen on the issue of desegregation is resurfacing in education once again. What was popular control in the 1960's in regard to desegregation in schools may become a new popular control movement in the 1990's in regard to bettering education. That certainly seems to be the case as one surveys the climate of this country. The President has challenged us on this.
Popular control generates better teaching.
Participation in governance is an element of freedom and autonomy, as well as the best means of keeping government attentive to the pursuit of private interests. A conclusion to be drawn from the story of desegregation is that the education of the people should be done by the people. If we hear the clamor for national testing, then national education should not be far behind. So now we must consider how this will be accomplished. This correlates with their parents idea of outsiders influencing their education and is inversely proportionate to their teachers' feeling about outsiders.