Giving Compass' Take:

• Recent reports show that giving school principles more flexibility can help with budgeting issues, a model of practice called student-based budgeting. 

• What will it take for school districts across the U.S. to adopt this model? 

• Learn more about school budgeting. 

With the new school year well underway, districts should be getting back into the swing of things. But that’s not happening at Houston Independent School District, where the high likelihood of a state takeover has been looming for months. A report published by the Texas Education Agency in August exposing pervasive school board corruption in Houston, coupled with low student performance, are two major reasons the state is likely to step in.

The investigation confirmed incidents of secret meetings, overreach by board members at individual schools and corrupt attempts to influence private contracts. But when rogue district leaders use their authority improperly, their power should be handed over to school principals, not state bureaucrats.

Although state intervention can sometimes help districts get out of debt or boost student learning, there are many cases in which state officials have been unable to do much better than local school boards on improving student achievement.

Political scientist Domingo Morel, author of Takeover: Race, Education, and American Democracy, further argues that they disproportionately affect communities of color, stripping them of local control as if it’s something they can’t be trusted with.

But revoking local representation isn’t the only option for struggling districts. Another path is to thin out district central offices and instead give individual school leaders more power — leaving state officials out of it.

As I highlighted in a recent Reason Foundation report, a growing number of school districts are finding success in giving principals the flexibility to make decisions — a model called student-based budgeting. The report also highlights how districts such as Boston and Denver have successfully used this model for years, with around half of district operating dollars following children directly to schools and ensuring that disadvantaged students receive additional funding.

Read the full article about school leaders can handle budgets by Christian Barnard at The 74.