June 4, 1999
Local control has been the mentra of the elected officials and leadership of the Republican party and the Libertarian & Conservative parties. The effort to make the Federal government the "Evil Empire," because of their insistence on making the States follow the Constitution and Bill of Rights. There seems to be little reflection or consideration as to what brought about Federal intervention, in the first place into the affairs of the States comprising our country.
The concept of a State controlling what ever happens within its boundaries (local control) was forever torn asunder when the civil rights struggles forced the Southern States to abandon its "White Supremacy" rule during the Civil War. They were forced to abandon their form of Local Control.
A case in point is the action of the elected Republican members of the County Board of Education of San Diego. Using the mentra that `local control' was at stake, they stopped the allocation of federal funds that were designated to go to School Districts that had already approved & voted to ask for those funds. The funds would be used for teacher training programs, to improve the reading skills of struggling children in grades 4-12, and for local school safety and drug prevention programs. The Republican Board members deadlocked the acceptance of the funds for the Districts. They stated that "they opposed the federal funds because they usurped local control," i.e. their control.
Their memories are short. Federal controls have been necessary. Local control has been the tool by which a powerful minority elite had in the past ignored the needs of the people. Change was brought about because local elites' were forced to obey the United States Constitution and the Bill of Rights.
Changes in the public schools have been brought about by the Federal Government because local control had created unequal educational opportunities, segregated schools, separate but unequal school systems, unequal funding. The Federal Government with all its rules has begun to level the playing field in the employment of teachers, the quality of the educational programs, and seeing to the needs OF ALL THE STUDENTS.
To turn the Public Schools back to the demagogues of both the Right or the Left, is to turn the country back to rule by self-serving Oligarchies. The PUBLIC needs the protection of the government from those that would deny us our RIGHTS & FREEDOMS UNDER OUR CONSTITUTION and Bill of Rights.
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