Local Control Is the Best Accountability

Pushback against top-down federal mandates and support for local school autonomy

It’s easy to write education policy from behind a desk in Washington. It’s harder to teach a struggling reader or manage a classroom of 30.

Local communities know their students. They know what works—and what doesn’t. Yet more and more, schools are being told what to do by people far removed from the classroom.

Top-down mandates have turned teachers into test proctors and administrators into compliance officers. But real accountability starts at the community level—not in bureaucratic checklists.

We need to return power to local school boards, parents, and educators. Not because we’re afraid of standards—but because we understand that one-size-fits-all rarely fits anyone well.

Let’s trust the people closest to the classroom. They’ve earned it.