This is one of the saddest delusions of most conservatives. They still believe local school boards decide curriculum and instruction. I ran for and served on my local public school board for 11 years, the entire time fighting the state and federal education bureaucracies.
The local school administrators are products of the same system and instinctively yield to mandates from on high, especially if they are tied to “funding” (they always are). The public school system needs to be pulled up by the roots and complete re-constituted.
I agree with that. Between standardized testing and national education “programs” like Common Core and now 1619 Project, not to mention the state-wide textbook purchases, local control of curriculum is negligible at best. A close friend has been working diligently on monitoring sex education programs and trying to educate parents and school boards about which programs are terrible, as opposed to only bad (the only options), and there is little interest at all.
In our state, the only thing school boards do are:
* approve/fire superintendents
* approve/reject the budget submitted by school district staff
And the organization of superintendents is pushing the narrative of “the team of 8”, that the Superintendent and School Board are a team who should work together and go along with the education expert’s advice ... AKA, rubber stamp what the Superintendent wants.
A real reform would be eliminating the requirement for an advanced degree in education AND having years of experience in education to serve as superintendent. Then you could bring in a business person to trim the fat and set realistic performance goals.