The Hammond School City was one of the first districts in the country to try school-based management, but its position as a pioneer is being outstripped by events. Today scores of districts in six states, notably Minnesota and Florida, are experimenting with moving decisions downward.
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Enthusiasm for the Miami reforms was such that last spring Dade County voters passed a $980 million school bond issue, the largest bond referendum in U.S. history. The income will result in the construction of 50 new schools and a 28 percent hike in teacher salaries. Soon a top-earning Dade County teacher will draw $64,000 a year, according to a county spokesman.
The potential for similar innovation–and excitement–lies within the skeleton of school reform scheduled to begin in the Chicago public schools by summer. Under the Chicago design each local school will be governed by an elected school council composed of six parents, two teachers, two community members, and the principal. The council will stitch together a school improvement plan, fix the school budget (bolstered increasingly and in varying degrees by a reallocation of federal Title I moneys), and hire the principal on contract with performance evaluation after four years. Staff hiring will be based on merit, not seniority. Given state-dictated parameters, each school will be able to tailor its program, including curriculum, to fit individual needs.
Donald Moore, executive director of Designs for Change, a leading architect of the Chicago reforms, disagrees. “Parents have a stake in improving their schools for their kids. They are willing to ask the basic questions as to how things are being run.” For a peek at how Chicago will work, suggests Moore, you should look not at Hammond or Miami but at 750 Illinois school districts where boards of elected citizens control matters and no one is in an uproar.
