As Gadfly has matured, he’s become increasingly skeptical of America’s education-governance structure. California is a vivid case-in-point. In the Golden State, a maze of governance arrangements leaves no one in charge and no one responsible for the state’s sub-par student achievement. That role is split among 1,040 elected local school boards, the state superintendent (also elected), the state board of education (appointed by the gov), and the governor himself. Adding to this clamor, voters directly influence education funding through oft contradictory and confusing referenda. A thorny predicament, indeed—and one that shows how an antiquated education-governance structure can be debilitative to student achievement.
“A lesson in mediocrity,” The Economist, April 20, 2011.