Effectively reversing its 1969 decision to grant control over elementary and middle schools to local school boards, the New York legislature earlier this year gave Mayor Michael Bloomberg control of those schools by granting him power over a citywide Board of Education. New York Times Magazine contributor James Traub describes the mostly ill effects of the twenty-two intervening years of "decentralization," or local control, on Brooklyn's Junior High School 271, now I.S. 271. Initially demanded by black community activists who wanted to take control of their neighborhood schools away from white bureaucrats, local control engendered a system better known for patronage and corruption than sound educational ideas or even giving parents a voice. "A Lesson in Unintended Consequences," by James Traub, The New York Times Magazine, October 6, 2002
