Redesigning Urban Districts in the USA: Mayoral Accountability and the Diverse Provider Model

Abstract

In response to public pressure, urban districts in the USA have initiated reforms that aim at redrawing the boundaries between the school system and other major local institutions. More specifically, this article focuses on two emerging reform strategies. We will examine an emerging model of governance that enables big-city mayors to establish authority over the school system, a significant departure from the dominant practice of district governance under an independently elected school board. Mayors in New York, Chicago, Boston and Washington DC, among others, have taken control over the school system with the authority to appoint the school board and/or the superintendent. Further, this article examines a reform strategy that allows for a closer working partnership between public schools and outside providers. This ‘diverse provider’ strategy significantly shifts power from traditionally powerful stakeholders (such as organized teachers’ union) by enabling non-profit and for-profit organizations to manage schools and other services. To illustrate the design and implementation of this type of reform, we will discuss the experience in Chicago (a mayor-led district) and Philadelphia (a district jointly governed by the governor and the mayor). In short, mayoral accountability and the diverse provider model constitute the latest reconfigurations in urban school governance in the USA.