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Murdoch: at the Olympics | 100 comments (100 topical, editorial, 0 hidden)
Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
well, obviously. Education (programme and staffing) is currently a nation-state-level competency; whether it should remain so is an interesting question, because it is definitely one of the strongest defining characteristics of a nation-state.

But managing a primary school, providing the buildings, employing ancillary staff, are communal responsibilities. In France, the size of a commune varies wildly (from dozens to millions of inhabitants); what I propose is that it should be a "parish level" competency rather than a municipal one.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II

by eurogreen on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 10:37:32 AM EST
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Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
Primary schools being a muni responsibility already leads to gentrification. Restricting the ability to redistribute resources to the parish level is not going to improve that trend.

- Jake

Friends come and go. Enemies accumulate.

by JakeS (JangoSierra 'at' gmail 'dot' com) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 10:49:28 AM EST
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Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
In France at least, there is pretty heavy redistribution between municipalities, supervised by the national level. This is why a country village could run a decent school, by the way : half of the municipal budget is subsidy. What I'm suggesting, I suppose, is that the parish level should be resourced according to population (rather than ability to levy property taxes). More widely, local-level democracy as a community-building tool.

It is rightly acknowledged that people of faith have no monopoly of virtue - Queen Elizabeth II
by eurogreen on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 11:16:26 AM EST
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Re: Channeling Graeber (none / 0)
Historical note: the decentralization reforms carried out by Minister of Interior Gaston Defferre in 1982, during Mitterand's first term, handed the management of schools (buildings & logistics but not the curriculum nor the teachers) for:

That's pretty much how it's been working for the past 30 years. Kind of complicated? Some would argue this is a French cultural trait...
by Bernard (bernard) on Wed Aug 8th, 2012 at 04:22:52 PM EST
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Murdoch: at the Olympics | 100 comments (100 topical, 0 editorial, 0 hidden)
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