Trends--Who Should Control Education? Working Paper #23

Until recently, educational governance was left primarily in the hands of locally controlled school boards. In the 1980s, however, states began to reassert their influence in education policy making. More recently, the federal government has expanded its role in education through programs like No Child Left Behind. But as state and federal policy makers continue to increase their involvement in education policy, does the public support such shifts? By examining public opinion from the 1970s to 2010, we find that unlike some policy advocates who see local control of education as obsolete, the public often expresses strong support for and satisfaction with local control. At the same time, the people recognize that the state and federal government can play an important role in education. We find increased support for state and federal involvement when issues of equity are invoked by question wording. List of abbreviations is appended. (Contains 11 tables.The work for this paper was supported in part by the Education Policy Center, Michigan State University. )