Schools as the Workplace for Students and Teachers

Staff and Organization:

In a conventional school in the United States, school systems are designed with a "top down" chain of leadership. The superintendent and principals are usually responsible for allocation funds and making hiring decisions. The teacher's responsibility is to teach.

At our school there would be no superintendent. Major decisions would be made by a committee of a select few that meet at a circular table. Teachers and principals would have similar responsibilities to a conventional American school.

School District's Relationship to the State:

In a typical American school district, there are a lot of rules and regulations that each state forces upon the district. Decisions made by legislators and other top government officials have a direct impact on how the school is run.

Our school would have to follow the same rules as other schools in our state. Since we would only be considered a semi-private institution because of accepting state funding for our conventional students we would have to meet certain criteria.

Role of Federal Government:

Because of our constitution, the federal government has a responsibility to educate our children. Education policy comes from a variety of sources, from the President, Congress, the Supreme Court, and the Department of Education. These institutions have enacted a variety of laws. Recently, No Child Left Behind was enacted with the intent of holding schools to standards.

Again, because our school receives state funding we will have to follow the policies that the federal government has enacted. We can guess that some of the knights in training will not be pleased about this, and could raid Washington D.C. if they pass laws that they do not like.

How Schools are Paid for:

The majority of funding for public schools comes from different types of taxes. More recently however schools have found alternative forms of funding from selling advertising space and privatization.

Our school should not have any trouble with keeping a balanced budget. In addition to the money we receive from taxes we will also make hefty profits from the parents of our knights in training. Most of the knights come from nobility and have plenty of disposable income.