Dive Brief:
- Republican governors in Michigan, Arkansas, Nevada, Wisconsin, Georgia, Ohio, and Illinois are all stepping in and seizing greater control from local school officials in order to try to help struggling schools.
- The irony of the trend is obvious, as Republican politicians are notorious for generally decrying the involvement of "big government" in local matters, and the Washington Post reports that the number of states controlled by Republicans doubled between 2010 and 2014.
- The Education Commission of the States reports that 11 states have passed or debated legislation to create state-run school districts within the past 12 months.
Dive Insight:
Districts need to be aware of the unintentional consequences that can arise from state takeovers. An August 2015 report from The Alliance to Reclaim Our Schools examined state takeovers in New Orleans, Michigan, and Tennessee, finding that they unequally harm black and Latino communities.
Some 97% of students in state-run districts are black or Latino. And it's worth noting that the results of such takeovers are mixed, with Detroit and Newark, NJ, among those that have failed to turn around schools.
Massachusetts, however, is going in the opposite direction. There, specific underperforming schools get support from entire districts to help them turn around, since the state considers a district only as good as its worst school. The idea is based on cooperation and making the school in question a part of a "broader district ecosystem."