Pew report comparing state, local school governance sees no clear winner

This article was originally published in The Notebook. In August 2020, The Notebook became Chalkbeat Philadelphia.

The nature of school governance – state or local, with elected or appointed members – is not linked to school improvement, according to a study by the Pew Charitable Trusts released Thursday.

What does make a difference is clear lines of authority and accountability, according to the report by Larry Eichel, director of Pew’s Philadelphia research initiative.

The study states: "There is no consensus among researchers about whether any particular form of school governance — including state takeovers, mayoral control, or elected local boards — leads to better student performance or fiscal management. But there is strong agreement that any governance system must avoid uncertainty about responsibility and accountability in order for schools to make progress."

The Philadelphia School District has been under state control since 2001 and has been run by a School Reform Commission with three members appointed by the governor and two by the mayor. Before that, it was run by a Board of Education appointed by the mayor.

It has never had an elected board. And its governing body never had its own taxing authority, forced to rely on the state legislature and City Council for its operating funds.

That division — elected officials required to appropriate money for a system where they don’t control spending — has caused political difficulty over the years. School costs are shared by the state and the city. As the state’s largest district by far, Philadelphia has had to fight for its share of state funds, and City Council has often chafed at meeting the District’s funding requests. That problem is compounded when the District gets less than it asks for and comes back the following year asking for more because of a continuing structural deficit.

The School Reform Commission was created in 2001 to address the District’s fiscal and academic crises. But it has not solved either. Although the takeover came with some additional state funds, primarily through borrowing authority, the District’s fiscal distress has deepened under SRC rule.

Eichel looked at 15 urban districts and found that 10 of them, along with 90 percent of the districts in the country, have elected school boards. Besides Philadelphia, the ones with appointed boards are Baltimore, New York City, Boston, Chicago, and Cleveland. And Baltimore, Boston, and New York cannot raise their own revenue.

Gov. Wolf and Mayor Kenney have both said they favor ending state control and returning the District to local governance. In his final major speech on education, former Mayor Michael Nutter also said that it was time for the SRC to be replaced and the District returned to local control.

And voters approved creating an elected school board in a non-binding referendum last spring.

The Pew report points out the pros and cons of an elected board:

"Advocates say elected bodies are inherently more accountable than appointed ones and that elections open board membership to a broad range of candidates, while appointed boards tend to consist of members with personal or institutional connections with political decision-makers.

"Opponents say that elected board members tend to be less willing to make needed but potentially unpopular decisions and that big-city board elections tend to have low voter turnout, making them susceptible to domination by political machines, labor unions, and other organized groups."