Centralized Finance and Decentralized Control in England: Implications for the United States.

Abstract

well established in the United States. With few exceptions, states are paying a larger share of total education costs and, increasingly, states are setting limits on how much or how little school districts may spend for educational services. While generally acknowledged as inevitable, the movement has raised fears that the viability of local control is threatened and that the advantages of decentralized policy making are soon to be lost. The fear is summed up in the adage, He who pays the piper calls the tune. That is a possibility, but it need not be. There is much to be learned in this respect from the experience of England. The English have developed a system of schooling whereby approximately twothirds of the costs are borne by the central government while local educational authorities exercise a greater degree of discretion than enjoyed by their counterparts in the United States especially at the school building level. The purpose of this paper is to describe the relationship between central and local government in England and to draw implications for practice in the United States with specific reference to education.