蜜桃影视

If the debate over the value of local control in K-12 public education were a boxing match, you might say supporters of a stronger state role increasingly look to be down and out.

This year, officials in聽 补苍诲听 hit the pause button on new state interventions. State takeovers in Louisiana and New Jersey have come to an end, and the local board in Newark聽 made under state control. Georgia voters that would have given the state new powers to take over struggling schools.

But , the authority to intervene in local districts remains an essential tool if states want to continue playing a meaningful role in improving local schools.

More than a decade ago, state legislatures on the left and the right empowered state superintendents with new authority to take dramatic actions on behalf of students.

Headline-grabbing takeovers followed. It was an era of muscular leadership by state chiefs who rolled up their sleeves 补苍诲听.

In some cases, including聽Newark; , New Jersey;聽, Massachusetts; and , researchers found that these efforts led to meaningful improvements. But other state interventions became mired in conflict and left students no better off.

The mixed results have emboldened critics of state takeovers聽, who say takeovers empower 鈥溾�� and that local leaders should be left to their own devices, 补苍诲听, who say that such interventions are meant to 鈥渄ismantle鈥� public education.

This pushback has left many state leaders decidedly weaker and less willing to take dramatic action in the face of dysfunction.

This is a mistake. Despite the challenges that come with any major effort like a state takeover, we know what a world without a strong state role in school improvement looks like.

Just rewind to the early 1990s, when most states lacked authority to take over local schools for academic reasons, and state education departments聽 rather than pushing for improvement in schools. The result: Local schools were unable to shake persistent low performance.

It鈥檚 true that state takeovers can carry steep political costs. For example, as聽political scientist Domingo Morel shows, state takeovers of local schools serving high concentrations of black students can result in the troubling loss of black political representation.

And Newark鈥檚聽recent efforts to roll back teacher performance pay show that state takeovers might sideline unions and other local interest groups temporarily, but they are bound to reassert their influence eventually.

As a result, state officials must prioritize building community buy-in for their reform strategy. It鈥檚 not enough to point to poor results, or even corrupt behavior, under local officials. And they must develop a strategy to ensure that key elements of their reforms last after state control ends.

The impact of any state takeover聽 and the work of educators, leaders, families and nonprofits within school systems. Like any reform strategy, a takeover does not offer a guarantee of success.

But states cannot stand idly by while local districts struggle to meet the needs of students or taxpayers.

They cannot, and should not, rely on takeovers exclusively to effect change. But takeover authority, even if unused,聽.

The same Texas Education Agency that is聽 in Houston is also聽encouraging other districts in the state to make fundamental changes voluntarily, through its Systems of Great Schools initiative.

Takeovers remain a powerful tool when used thoughtfully. States risk irrelevance if they abandon them altogether.

Ashley Jochim is a senior research analyst at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at the University of Washington Bothell. Paul Hill鈥檚 research focuses on reform of public elementary and secondary education. A former federal policy adviser on education, he founded the Center on Reinventing Public Education.

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