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Illinois School Board Journal
September/October 2003

Balancing in a democracy
The true work of school boards

by Phillip Boyle

Phillip Boyle is Associate Professor of Public Management and Government in the School of Government at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He works with governing boards, administrators and community leaders on public problem solving and decision-making, and administers the School's governance education programs for county, school and municipal elected officials. Contact him at boyle@iogmail.iog.unc.edu.

Many teachers, administrators and school board members know firsthand that public schools face a crisis of legitimacy. In communities across the nation, numerous business organizations, citizen groups and public officials have questioned how well public schools work and whether they are worth the cost.

Vouchers, charter schools, non-public schools and home schooling are attracting renewed interest. Citizens without school-age children often object to paying taxes that go to support public schools. Not surprisingly, local boards of education have also come under attack.

Critics of local school boards have questioned the capacity of ordinary citizens to govern public schools, and the very need for local boards of education. They point to growing global economic competition, the demand for a technologically literate work force, the increasing complexity of school curricula, and state and municipal takeovers of local school systems as proof that local school governance is outmoded and obsolete. They offer numerous recommendations for abolishing local boards of education and replacing them with alternative governance mechanisms.

In its 1999 report - Governing America's Schools: Changing the Rules - the National Commission on Governing America's Schools states, "Governance arrangements establish the rules of the game. ... In the educational system, the real work of learning happens in the classroom, in the interaction between teacher and student. But, as the Committee for Economic Development noted in its 1994 report, Putting Learning First: Governing and Managing the Schools for High Achievement, '... this interaction is affected by innumerable large and small decisions made by principals, school boards, superintendents, state legislatures, education department officials and the federal government. These decisions and their implementation can either aid or hinder quality education in the classroom. This is the heart of education governance.' Without good governance, good schools are the exception, not the rule."

The question of what makes good governance, however, must be answered first.

Why is public education critical to democracy and why instead of diminishing or abolishing school boards we should be strengthening their capacity to govern public education? Let's start with ABC and SOS - two examples of the crisis of democracy facing public schools.

ABC - Assignment By Choice

The Wake County School System in North Carolina has a long-standing commitment to both academic excellence and student diversity. Having ended a policy of school busing as a means to achieving greater social and economic equality in its public schools, the school board adopted a policy of student assignment that uses socioeconomic data to ensure that no school in the system has more than 40 percent of its students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.

Sensitive to parental choice, the board carefully monitors growth and enrollment trends to keep the number of reassignments to a minimum. Student reassignments in the 2003-04 school year equaled 1 percent of the total student enrollment. Some citizens, including a local chamber of commerce and some local elected officials, have objected to this policy, and a group of parents formed a group they named ABC - Assignment By Choice. The members of ABC believe that all parents should be able to choose the school that they believe is in the best interests of their children without interference from the school board.

SOS - Save Our Schools

In Florida, a group of citizens have formed SOS - Save Our Schools. Tapping into a vein of popular resentment towards government and public suspicion of school governance, they hope to obtain enough signatures to launch a statewide ballot initiative for a constitutional amendment that would create a new system of school governance that they believe would be more efficient, more cost-effective and more responsive to the individual needs of the community.

Under the proposed amendment, state money could go directly to "parental advisory councils" at each school. Most money would be earmarked by the state for teacher salaries, but parents could spend the rest on unique programs, like athletics or art. Additionally, there would be a countywide parent council with limited responsibility.

An elected superintendent would remain in place, as a liaison between the state and the school councils. The result of this initiative would be to abolish local school boards in Florida.

What do public schools have to do with democracy?

Public schools mean more than schools paid for with public dollars. Former Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health, Education and Welfare David Mathews maintains that we invest in public education to transmit the values of democracy to the next generation in order to create and perpetuate a nation dedicated to particular principles.

The U.S. Supreme Court has made this connection between public education and democracy on several occasions, noting that the public school is a vital civic institution for the preservation of a democratic system of government and the primary instrument for transmitting the values on which our society rests. What are these democratic values upon which our society rests? And what role do school boards play in ensuring that public education transmits these values to the next generation?

Below is a list of issues involving public schools. How would you describe these issues? What do you think they have in common?

• Adopt a curriculum relevant to business
• Adopt fair student discipline policies
• Charter schools
• Close the achievement gap
• Commercial advertising in schools and texts
• Dress codes
• Drug testing
• Ensure that every child gets the same education
• Extend the school day and year
• Home schooling
• Lighter book bags, bigger lockers, more time between classes
• Make all sports available in all schools
• More art, music, civics, character education
• More choices in courses and programs
• Privatization and contracting
• Provide equitable funding for all schools
• Provide for individualized curricula and instruction
• Reduce the number of dropouts
• Remove discipline problems from schools
• Safe, clean and secure schools
• Same courses and standards for all students
• School busing to ensure student diversity
• School choice
• Smaller classes, lower teacher ratios
• Student and teacher testing and certification
• Teach all history and cultures equally
• Teacher performance pay, bonuses and incentives
• Title IX
• Vouchers
• Zero tolerance policies

You may have noticed that these are issues about which people often disagree, which makes many of these issues controversial. Did you also notice that they involve the same values? Because the same set of values frame all public problems, we call them public values.

All public problems involve public values

Winston Churchill once said that democracy was the worst form of government - except for all the rest. While we might agree with Churchill, we often disagree about the role of government in our lives. We disagree about how much government to have, and about what government should do. But despite these disagreements, we generally agree on government's purpose. As political philosophers have noted for centuries, the fundamental purpose of any legitimate government is to help its citizens create the "good life."

What is the good life? Alexis de Tocqueville, a French aristocrat, traveled to the United States in the 1830s to study a new country called America. In Democracy in America, Tocqueville wrote, "To be a Frenchman is a fact; but to be an American is an ideal." This ideal that Tocqueville wrote about is what we mean by the good life, the good society or the American Dream. It is a set of values that we share as Americans: things like freedom and individuality, safety and security, fairness and justice, efficiency and a good standard of living. As shown in the figure below, we can group these values into four basic public values that represent the good life.

• Liberty includes freedom, autonomy, choice, opportunity, independence, individuality, privacy, personal responsibility and self-sufficiency.
• Equality includes fairness, justice, tolerance, equity, equal treatment, equal opportunity, equal results and a level playing field.
• Community includes safety, security, a sense of connection and belonging to the people and places where we live and work, social and moral order and quality of life.
• Prosperity includes economy, productivity, efficiency, growth, development, using market rules to make decisions, privatization, return on investment, profit, standard of living and quantity of life.

How public values frame public school problems

No one wants to be less free, less equal, less safe or poorer. We want as much of each of these values as we can have, but sometimes we have to choose between them. Consider the following statements made by two public school principals:

"I have a Food Lion, a Handy Pantry and an Eckerd's right next to me. I'd just as soon, if profits are to be made, have it go to the school." - High School Principal

"I can make that money in other ways. We don't need to exploit the children by selling them soda." - Middle School Principal

These comments, made during one school district's discussion about school lunches and snacks, show how public values frame public problems and choices in a democratic society. Faced with money shortages, school boards must weigh the economic benefits of accepting revenue from Pepsi or Pizza Hut against the health consequences for students of "junk" food.

Should a school district accept a commercial contract that guarantees new revenue in exchange for allowing a company to sell its products in schools? In this instance, quality of life and quantity of life are in tension with one another. When this occurs, we have a public problem.

Public problems occur when people pursue different public values. To solve a public problem, public officials must first identify which values are at stake. Once they have done that, they must make two kinds of choices.

First, they must decide which value or values they want more of, and second, they must decide how much to give up of one value to get more of another. For example, some cities and towns have installed or are considering installing cameras to identify drivers who run red lights. Supporters of red-light cameras usually cite concerns about safety and social order. Opponents usually cite concerns about privacy and personal freedom.

The problem facing public officials is deciding whether to choose safety or privacy, and how much to give up of one to get more of the other. All public problems involve these values. Here are some more public school examples:

• In light of the U.S. Supreme Court's recent ruling that school districts may conduct random drug testing of students involved in extracurricular activities, boards must weigh concerns about safety and social and moral order against concerns about privacy, fairness, and return on investment. Should school districts implement drug testing, who should be tested, and how should such a policy address concerns about fairness and privacy?
• Faced with widespread suspicion and distrust of government, boards must weigh the benefits of allowing parents to choose their child's school against the benefits of maintaining schools with broad social and economic diversity. Should parents be able to make this choice individually, or should it be made to benefit the community as a whole?
• For many years schools have helped build a sense of common identity by having students recite the Pledge of Allegiance. Given the U.S. Supreme Court's 1943 ruling that schools cannot require children to recite the Pledge of Allegiance, and faced with an increasingly diverse student population and escalating demands for classroom productivity, how can schools use the Pledge of Allegiance to foster a greater sense of community and common identity among students without sacrificing these other values?
• Given the importance of creating an environment where every student can learn, how should boards balance the benefits of more restrictive student dress codes that create greater social order by requiring students to dress more equally against the benefits of more flexible policies that allow students greater choice and opportunities for self-expression?
• Technology often creates as many problems as it solves. Cell phones give students a greater degree of individual freedom and provide parents with a greater sense of safety and security. But cell phones can also interfere with a productive learning environment. Consequently, some school boards have adopted policies banning cell phones in school. Is the greater sense of security afforded by cell phones worth the potential costs to school productivity?

Lessons to learn, questions to ask

Making good decisions means more than just choosing sides. As an individual, you may prefer one value to another. As a board member, you must recognize that public problems always involve at least two public values, and that no one value is always better than the others. So before the board begins debating solutions, make sure everyone understands which values are involved. A solution is a problem everybody understands!

Good decisions must be technically feasible and psychologically acceptable. In other words, they must meet all applicable legal and administrative requirements. And they must also satisfy our public values. Boards should ask themselves, "How much are we willing to give up of one value to get more of another, and how did we treat those values with which we disagree?"

The board's role in a democratic society is to help create the good life. For school boards, this means helping to create enough liberty, equality, community and prosperity for everyone through public education. The above examples show that boards cannot do this by choosing the same value every time. Instead, the board needs to balance each of these values. After making a decision, the board should ask: "How does this choice make our community better?"

Improving the capacity of boards to govern

School boards derive their authority from public law, but they derive their legitimacy from our democratic political process. Board members are often elected more for their willingness to serve than for their ability to govern. Once elected, members seldom enter office knowing everything they need to know or knowing how to do everything they need to do. Learning to govern effectively within the context of representative democracy is the most critical issue in board development.

By its very nature, governance is a collaborative activity. Members of a governing board are elected as individuals, but once on the board, they must learn to share power with other board members, with the superintendent and with other governing boards. Good governance is a difficult task because public problems always involve values, because members must share power on a board with many players but nobody in charge, and because the roles and responsibilities of the board are constantly shifting.

Researchers have identified several core competencies that help managers and leaders work collaboratively. Adapted to governance education, or education for governing boards, these competencies might look as follows:

• The ability to articulate the meaning of democracy and the core values that frame public policy choices.
• Understanding the roles and responsibilities of an elected board within a representative political system.
• The ability to forge an effective governing relationship between citizens, government, and social, economic and civic institutions.
• The ability to create public spaces and design public processes within which citizens can come together to explore shared values, develop a sense of community and create a common vision of their future.
• Skill in effective communication, conflict resolution, problem solving, decision making, facilitation and collaboration.

These characteristics of governance education illustrate how the process skills of board leadership and the political skills of board governance are interconnected. The goal of governance education is to provide elected officials and administrators with the knowledge and skills necessary to govern effectively in a political environment in which no single individual or group is solely in charge. An effective governance education program should provide:

• Instructional settings and formats that are highly interactive, emphasize principles of adult education, and focus on practical knowledge of school governance based on contemporary and everyday situations.
• Instructional settings that mix elected officials and administrators and provide opportunities to explore reflectively the challenges facing school boards in light of contemporary limits on governance, policy making and resources.

Why public education is vital to democracy and why public schools need school boards

In 1918, John Dewey, one of America's most influential advocates of public education, wrote, "It is, of course, arbitrary to separate industrial competency from capacity in good citizenship." Eighty years later, Peter Drucker, America's most well-known business management expert, wrote, "An educated person is equipped both to lead a life and to make a living."

Dewey and Drucker, one a great American philosopher, the other a great American business leader, show how we expect public schools to prepare young people for both an economic and a civic role in American society. Public schools are responsible for preparing students for these roles, and school boards are responsible for making sure that public schools transmit public values to the next generation.

As you look at the values of the good life, you will see that they are also the goals of public education: to develop educated citizens capable of self-government, because, as Thomas Jefferson observed, without an educated citizenry we cannot preserve our freedom; to ensure fairness and equal opportunity for all citizens; to promote safety, security, and social and moral order; and to promote individual economic self-sufficiency and provide for the general welfare.

There can be no liberty, equality, community or prosperity without democracy, no democracy without public schools and no public schools without a public.

Liberty, equality, community and prosperity are the values of democracy. They are the "public" in public education. They are the true work of school boards!