The NSW Teachers Federation and public school advocates such as Trevor Cobbold argue that there is little, if any, evidence to support the benefits of increased school autonomy.
If true, their claims undermine the argument that choice and diversity in education, represented by autonomous government and non-government schools, is a good thing and suggest that moves around Australia to empower schools at the local level are misdirected.
But there is increasing international evidence that freeing schools from centralised and bureaucratic control is beneficial.
This is a truly fascinating political event to watch. Whoever is “in power” in a legislature, Congress, or Parliament suddenly begins believing that more centralized control of schools is a good thing, but the minute that constituency loses power, they suddenly go all “local control” about schooling.