CT Resident Is New National School Boards Association President

The National School Boards Association represents state boards of education across the country, and their 90 thousand members.  The Association’s new president is a school board member from Connecticut.

Mary Broderick of East Lyme says today’s school boards face a myriad of challenges from funding to top-down decision making to testing. But as NSBA president, a top priority will be to protect local decision making, "...and insuring that there is still local voice.  We recognize that we are asking for resources from the federal government.  We ask for tremendous resources from our states.  And people figure that he who has the gold, rules.  It is very difficult for them not to do a lot of qualifying how resources are spent."

She says local school boards understand the needs of their communities. So they need the flexibility to direct federal and state money to their areas where its needed most. "The one size fits all approach to education doesn’t work. And its very important for us to have some say over how resources are expended. That’s the whole point of school boards."

President Obama’s Race to The Top grants have come under fire by some school boards for being too prescriptive.  Connecticut is expected to apply for the next round of Race to the Top Grants, aimed at early childhood education.

For WNPR, I’m Diane Orson.