Liberal and moderate candidates take control of school boards in contentious races across US
Liberal and moderate candidates take control of school boards in contentious races across US
Liberal and moderate candidates have won seats in high-profile polarizing elections against social conservatives across the U.S.
Liberal and moderate candidates have won seats in high-profile polarizing elections against social conservatives across the U.S.
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TLDR - the Democrats made inroads into school districts across the US, disrupting republican plans to take over the education system.
What an outsider will never understand.
Why local school boards still exist in the first place and why they are elected positions.
Same with local sheriffs.
As a very large country by area, the foundational structure broke stuff up based on the needs ot travel times and government structures always have a ton of inertia if they are working even moderately ok.
In the US local is sometimes the size of small European nations. In the places where local is a smaller population, the distances are so vast that it doesn't make sense for a town of 500 to need to balance needs with a nearby densely populated area that has very different needs. In Kansas for example, the largest local piblic school district has 10% of the state's student enrollment which is 10s of thousands. There are almost 300 local school districts in the state and the median district has 584 students and the same geographical area as the largest. There is no way that those smaller spread out districts would benefit from more management layers spread over vast differences, but they go get support of the state education department on standards and compliance.
The number of elected positions is very overwhelming, but at least there is an opportunity to be involved.
I am from Australia.
A country the same size as the USA with a fraction of the population. We are even more sparsely populated and had all the same issues in the past with communication etc.
I understand how the system started .
What I don't understand is how it continued in the 20th century, let alone the 21st.
In the days of the internet these systems still being in place is like allowing someone to drive a horse and buggy on your interstate highways because that is how we did it in the past...
and government structures always have a ton of inertia if they are working even moderately ok.
I think that is what @snooggums is saying here.
It is an old system that is outdated, but it still works well enough in most cases that there is no real political will to change it. Most would rather devote their efforts to just making the system work, which is what we have seen in these more recent elections.
I don't want to sound like I am defending the system - I think the US government should be more centralized when it comes to things like education and I do agree these things are totally outdated. But, I do not think this is going to change anytime soon.
edit: tagged wrong username