Dive Brief:
- Steven Chandler, the superintendent for Mississippi's Tunica County schools, resigned late last week after state officials contemplated declaring the district to be in a "state of emergency."
- The declaration would prompt the state to appoint a conservator and remove the current school board.
- The district failed to meet 25 of the state's 31 standards for accreditation, according to an audit.
Dive Insight:
Supertintendent churn is pretty typical in struggling school districts, especially urban ones, and high-profile school overhauls are often accompanied by a change in top leadership. If the state were to take over, as they seem poised to do, Chandler would lose his position anyway. Still, in a letter to the county clerk announcing his resignation, he omitted the forecasted state takeover and accreditation problems.
If the state takes over the 2,200-student school district, it'll mark the second time the district has been placed in state conservatorship. The first took place between 1997 and 2002. It'll also join a host of other districts across the country where state officials have opted to remove local leadership and control in an attempt to jumpstart school improvement. Among the most famous is post-Katrina New Orleans, where the state handed over most of the city's schools to charter operators. Previously, Louisiana had directly managed struggling schools before deciding instead to hand over the reins to outside operators.
Similar initiatives are taking place in Indiana, Tennessee, and New Jersey, and more are likely to get going. Earlier this year, Georgia passed a law allowing state takeovers of struggling districts, inspired by Louisiana's legislation. The moves have prompted fears of the privatization of public schools and, so far, have produced mixed results. The practice is still not possible in roughly half of American states.
If Mississippi took over Tunica's schools, it's not yet clear what that could mean for the district. The state has not yet decided, and whether it would take the charter-driven approach if it did is not yet clear.