School Committee Autonomy
In 1975, the first year I was a school superintendent, I went to a meeting of colleagues interested in legislation. In those days, Massachusetts School Committees (School Boards to non-New Englanders) had School Committee Autonomy. The law required cities and towns to appropriate the funds that School Committees voted to be their budget.
The Superintendents reviewed legislative proposals. One proposal allowed a town to reject a School Committee’s budget if 90% of the town meeting members voted against it. The Superintendents paused. No slippery slope for them. School committee autonomy was forever. Erode School Committee autonomy? That would be the end of School Committee authority, let alone autonomy.
In 1980, a popular referendum passed Proposition 2 ½. The new law set a cap on tax levies and gave town meetings or town councils or city councils and mayors authority over the bottom line of the school budget.
The School Committees and the School Superintendents fell off a cliff.
Tomorrow. Another slippery slope? Another cliff?