The Douglas administration is pushing for school consolidation in Vermont. Literally for years I’ve been asking for the numbers that would support this type of centralized command and control over our for now localized school system … and for years I’ve not been given or found them.
What I can commonly find is such as this
With those kinds of results for small schools and districts, it should come as no surprise that states whose students perform very well on the rigorous National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) tests tend to have decentralized governance structures. For example, only nine states (Connecticut, Indiana, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, Vermont, Nebraska) scored above the national average in both 8th grade mathematics and 8th grade science on the most recent test. All of these states have highly decentralized governance structures with many small local schools, many locally elected school boards, and many local superintendents.
Okay, 2003 is so … yesterday … but the leadership in Vermont’s education system hasn’t changed: see this site from the federal Dept or Ed for more.
So here’s what Douglas and buddies are willing to trade: they get more control while we get less results at no less and probably greater expense.
I’m going to ask again: where are the numbers?
In Republican-leadership-world, assertion is as good as fact – better, actually.
Of course, if government gets enough control, tests can be devised to prove that government control ends ignorance …
I think I remember something about this from junior high history… was it Germany, or the USSR that tried that approach?
I hear rumors that stats on Chinese economic growth have been greatly exaggerated. What are the odds that reports on the damage done by that explosive growth are equally exaggerated?