Menekülés az iskolától
Escaping from school ownership

Summary/Abstract: After the enthusiasm of 1989/90 (the political transition in Hungary), local schools were run by local authorities. Grass-roots decentralisation, however, ended up in exacerbating tensions between the local and central educational authorities. After the 2010 parliamentary and local elections, the government implemented a massive centralisation policy, while offering an “opting out” possibility for any local authority who became unable to finance its own schools any more. Why do local governments (who were enthusiastic before) now want to “give back” these institutions? And why do teachers protest against the recentralisation process? Via the telling the story of recentralisation in a Hungarian town, the authors discover a new form of power-sharing between local authorities and teacher organisations. Teachers have become more and more influential (an informal power) in local society so have been able to limit the educational policy decisions of local government; while the loss of power has ended up in a financial crisis for schools. The authors suggest that decentralisation and recentralisation are complementary policies, and both types have to be applied to balance the growing cost of education.

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