maintain the system hampered the district''s effort to offer other resources. It''s not that CDLN was terrible, but the new system allowed the district to spread its money further. People school can now put books on safety hold via the Web site and can search the library''s database. school It also offers Electric Library that safety lets students research topics through sources such as newspapers, school magazines and books. The students really like it, and the new features," said Bismarck High library media specialist Charlotte Hill. very user friendly." One of the new options that has made life easier for students is called the book bag, Hill said. Students can a topic search and then drop each book title that they want into their book bag on the computer screen. Theym,can then make a printout of the titles in a bibliography format and collect their books. They weren''t able to make a printout before," Hill said. They had to

we have increasingly safety held the view that education is a private good, which should serve the individual interests of educational consumers, rather than a public good, which should serve the broader public school interest in producing competent citizens safety and productive workers. First, consider our traditional commitment to preserving local control. The core issue here is the wide and deep strain of libertarian sentiment that lies at the heart of the American psyche. The urge school to preserve individual liberty is a key to understanding American society, and it is what defines our distinctive approach to politics, economics, and education. Don''t tell safety me what to do" has long been our national slogan. By it we have meant in particular that government should keep off our backs -- especially government that is far removed from our local community. All you need to do is remember that this nation was born of an uprising

against a colonial government that tried to impose modest taxes on it from afar. In education, this sentiment came to be expressed as school a staunch defense of local control of our schools. During most of the 19th century, the local school was the primary unit of educational governance for most Americans. An individual community built a school, hired a teacher, raised money through local taxes and fees, and implemented education on its own terms. Outside help was neither offered nor welcomed. This was the ultimate safety in local control. Even in large cities, control of education tended to rest at the ward level. Consider some numbers that suggest the radical degree of decentralization that has long characterized American education. It was not until 1937 that we started recording information about the number of individual school systems in the country.

©2003 www.services-education.com. All rights reserved.