Cyclical Renewal in a Large City School District-Decentralization and the Policy Process

Abstract

Decentralization of the New York City school system did not start in 1966 with the controversy over the demonstration districts in Harlem, Oceanhill- Brownsville and Two Bridges. The immediate controversy began in 1961 with "A Plan for the Revitalization of Local School Boards," and can be traced to disenchantment with centralized bureaucracy, which had its roots in the consoli dation of New York City at the beginning of the twentieth century.