04924nam 2200745 450 991046527950332120200520144314.01-5017-0411-71-5017-0410-910.7591/9781501704116(CKB)3710000000725631(EBL)4542909(OCoLC)951436940(SSID)ssj0001677805(PQKBManifestationID)16486434(PQKBTitleCode)TC0001677805(PQKBWorkID)14816338(PQKB)10618062(StDuBDS)EDZ0001599456(MiAaPQ)EBC4542909(MdBmJHUP)muse51414(DE-B1597)478666(OCoLC)979631180(DE-B1597)9781501704116(Au-PeEL)EBL4542909(CaPaEBR)ebr11220638(CaONFJC)MIL951836(EXLCZ)99371000000072563120160628h20162016 uy 0engur|n|---|||||txtccrThe fight for local control schools, suburbs, and American democracy /Campbell F. ScribnerIthaca, New York ;London, [England] :Cornell University Press,2016.©20161 online resource (252 p.)American Institutions and SocietyDescription based upon print version of record.1-5017-0080-4 Includes bibliographical references and index.Frontmatter -- Contents -- Acknowledgments -- Introduction. A Past Found -- 1. The Meaning of Local Control -- 2. The Long History of School District Consolidation -- 3. The Exurban Exchange -- 4. The Struggle for Status -- 5. The Fight for Funding -- 6. Tax Revolts -- 7. The Battle of Ideas -- 8. Redefining Parents' Rights -- Conclusion. A Past Lost -- Bibliographic Note -- Notes -- IndexThroughout the twentieth century, local control of school districts was one of the most contentious issues in American politics. As state and federal regulation attempted to standardize public schools, conservatives defended local prerogative as a bulwark of democratic values. Yet their commitment to those values was shifting and selective. In The Fight for Local Control, Campbell F. Scribner demonstrates how, in the decades after World War II, suburban communities appropriated legacies of rural education to assert their political autonomy and in the process radically changed educational law. Scribner's account unfolds on the metropolitan fringe, where rapid suburbanization overlapped with the consolidation of thousands of small rural schools. Rural residents initially clashed with their new neighbors, but by the 1960s the groups had rallied to resist government oversight. What began as residual opposition to school consolidation would transform into campaigns against race-based busing, unionized teachers, tax equalization, and secular curriculum. In case after case, suburban conservatives carved out new rights for local autonomy, stifling equal educational opportunity.Yet Scribner also provides insight into why many conservatives have since abandoned localism for policies that stress school choice and federal accountability. In the 1970s, as new battles arose over unions, textbooks, and taxes, districts on the rural-suburban fringe became the first to assert individual choice in the form of school vouchers, religious exemptions, and a marketplace model of education. At the same time, they began to embrace tax limitation and standardized testing, policies that checked educational bureaucracy but bypassed local school boards. The effect, Scribner concludes, has been to reinforce inequalities between districts while weakening participatory government within them, keeping the worst aspects of local control in place while forfeiting its virtues.American institutions and society.Education and stateUnited StatesHistory20th centuryEducationPolitical aspectsUnited StatesHistory20th centuryDemocracy and educationUnited StatesHistory20th centuryEducational changePolitical aspectsUnited StatesHistory20th centurySuburban schoolsUnited StatesHistory20th centuryElectronic books.Education and stateHistoryEducationPolitical aspectsHistoryDemocracy and educationHistoryEducational changePolitical aspectsHistorySuburban schoolsHistory379.73Scribner Campbell F.1981-2013,1054666MiAaPQMiAaPQMiAaPQBOOK9910465279503321The fight for local control2487494UNINA