School boards in America: a flawed exercise in democracy

Preface

A cradle of democracy

The school board's impact on student learning

Expenditures : huge and uneven

Jobs, jobs, jobs

A school board's key employee : the superintendent

Teachers : the heart of the enterprise

The mirage of local control

The special burden of special education

The inner workings of school boards

The good, the bad, and the ugly in the work of school boards

Accepting responsibility

Other ways to govern schools

Do school boards have a future?