School agency empowerment and disempowerment

¶ … empowerment" and "disempowerment." How are school agencies empowered and disempowered? School agencies or districts are charged with operating the schools in their area efficiently and with the most educational rewards for their students. Empowering the school districts helps the educational process and aids the district in being more effective and efficient, but when districts are disempowered, the education of its' charges can suffer.

Empowering a school agency or district can come from many avenues. Voters empower the district when they elect school board officials. Residents empower the school district by paying educational taxes that support the district, and governments empower the district by funding them and allowing them to operate effectively. Districts are empowered by local professionals and business people, too, who donate items to schools, give financial support to schools, and advertise during school events. Districts are empowered by parents, too, who support the school, volunteer, and even help with building projects and other efforts to maintain and operate the schools.

Empowerment also comes from the schools themselves, especially when districts give them the opportunity to operate autonomously, without rigorous district intervention, allowing the staff more freedom while giving them more responsibilities, as well. A reporter notes, "The push to give school districts greater operating flexibility -- a grassroots rallying cry eclipsed in recent years by the charter school movement -- is seeing a resurgence, as states seek to spur innovation that will help raise student achievement" (Jacobson, 2008). Many districts are setting up contracts and operations that allow districts much more freedom in return for establishing higher educational goals for their schools in the program in an effort to reduce administrative staff, save money, and still exceed educational goals for the district's students.

However, just as districts can be empowered, they can easily be disempowered, too. Perhaps the biggest area of disempowerment is in funding. When the economy gets rocky, as it is right now, budgets shrink, and that holds true for school districts. They receive less tax revenue, less funding from state and national governments, and they begin to show the effects. Many of these items are really out of their control, but they can have a debilitating affect on the district and its' employees, which in turn trickles down to the students and their learning.

A disempowered district is also out of control in other areas, such as federal mandating of test scores and educational measurements. They must adhere to guidelines that may not adequately measure their student population, or may not represent their population's learning abilities. A disempowered district is not successful at maintaining educational levels, but it can also be unsuccessful in housing its' student population. It may not have the funds available to maintain buildings properly, buy new, updated textbooks, and keep up with student growth. They may not be able to afford new schools, and they may not be able to hire the best teachers in those schools.

There is also a growing movement to move administration away from the school district, known as "empowerment." In this movement, the schools take over their own administration with parents, staff, and community members involved in the process. An education expert notes, "Empowerment removes the decision-making processes of a school from the school board members and superintendents. The school's staff members, families of students, community and business representatives, and secondary level students, then make the school's decision-making processes" (Czubaj, 1999, p. 181). There are certain guidelines and parameters that must be met in these empowerment situations, but they have been successful in many parts of the country, leading to improved learning situations for most students.