Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Abstract

While political philosophers have paid a great deal of attention to providing a theory of secession for cases of nations breaking away from nation-states, little has been said about perhaps the most common type of secession — school district secession. I argue that while there is no principled prohibition against school district secession, there are presumptions against the practice. After discussing why justice requires that all children are provided with an education that is autonomy-facilitating and also meets the standards of equality of opportunity, I show that many arguments offered for school district secession do not meet the criteria for justice. Finally, I investigate one policy alternative that concerned parents (at least those with more principled reasons for school district secession) may consider to mitigate their need to secede in cases where they seek more direct participation in the political decisions of their school districts.

Keywords

autonomy-facilitating education Brighouse Buchanan school district secession

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Berkes, H. (2005) `Maine Islands weigh secession from mainland'. National Public Radio. Available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4695553 (accessed on 12 June 2008).

Berkes, H. (2007) `Maine Island celebrates new independence'. National Public Radio. Available at http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=11713161 (accessed on 12 June 2008).

Brighouse, H. (2000) School Choice and Social Justice. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

Bryk, A.S. , Thum,Y.M. , Easton, J.Q. and Luppescu, S. (1998) Academic Productivity of Chicago Public Elementary Schools: A Technical Report Sponsored by The Consortium on Chicago School Research. Chicago: Consortium on Chicago School Research.

Buchanan, A. (1991) Secession: The Morality of Political Divorce from Fort Sumter to Lithuania to Quebec. Boulder, CO: Westview Press.

Buchanan,A. (1997) `Theories of secession', Philosophy and Pubic Affairs 26(1): 42.

Celis,W. ( 1994) `Beyond the P.T.A.: Parents seek more power', New York Times, 24 October.

Copp, D. (1997) `Democracy and communal self-determination', in R. McKim (ed.), The Morality of Nationalism, pp. 277-300. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

DeFranzo Haselhoff, K. (2002) `Motivations for the San Fernando Valley Secession Movement: The political dynamics of secession', Journal of Urban Affairs 24(4): 425-43.

10.

Fung, A. (2003) `Deliberative democracy, Chicago Style: Grassroots governance in policing and public education', in E. Olin Wright and A. Fung (eds), Deepening Democracy: Institutional Innovations in Participatory Governance, pp. 111-43. London:Verso.

11.

Hendrie, C. (1997) `Plan to lop off 200,000 students from L.A. unveiled' . Education Week, 16 April.

12.

Jacobson, L. (2001) `Schooled in politics, California parents regroup' , Education Week, 12 December.

13.

Kozol, J. (1987) Savage Inequalities. NewYork : Crown Publishers.

14.

Philpott, D. (1995) `In defense of self-determination', Ethics 105: 352-85.

15.

Schmidt, P. (1995) `L.A. breakup plans gather head of steam', Education Week, 25 October.

16.

Schnaiberg, L. (1996) `Proposed district secession fans racial flames' , Education Week, 7 February.

17.

Thomas, M. (2006) `Pejaro Valley School Board race: Three want to represent Aptos', The Mid-County Post, 17 October.

Presumptions against school district secession

Abstract

Keywords

Get full access to this article

References