Should the State Take Over a “Failing” School District?

by David Safier

This is a tough one for me. Three Phoenix Democrats in the House have introduced a bill to have the State Board of Education take over Phoenix’s Roosevelt School District for 3 years. Half of the district’s 21 schools are failing, according to the state’s report card.

Will the State Board do a better job? I don’t know. Do we want the Board to take over school districts? I don’t like the sound of it, but it may be the right thing to do in this case. Will this lead to a rash of state takeovers of school districts?

It sounds like the Democratic Reps are both knowledgeable about the district and concerned about its well being. (One had a kid in the district, and another had been president of the governing board). Because they’re Democrats, I don’t suspect them of working in concert with Tom Horne on some anti-public-school conspiracy.

It may be the district is truly broken, and it will take outside intervention to fix it.

Like I say, this is a tough one.