Understanding Local Control in the Wake of State Education Reform

Abstract

In this article we argue that traditional notions of state-local relations as a zero-sum game need recasting. Although some new state education reforms are exerting strong influences on the classroom, there are reasons to think that the reforms left not only considerable room for flexibility but also enhanced local activism. New conceptions of state-local relations must account for the ways in which states mobilize public and professional opinion, districts orchestrate state and local priorities around schools and classrooms, and local political entrepreneurs influence state policy. The result is often that the local effects of state policy are greater than those one would predict on the basis of state capacity, and localities often gain influence as a result of state policymaking rather than lose it.