To make a big change, all these people have to agree... but what can they do on their own?

Your principal has less power than you think...

Go to them for school policy issues, not budget issues (some principals only control $8k of budget spend a year).


Change grading policy → Get a day off for any holiday → Get rid of Dress Codes →

But you've probably never SEEN your principal's boss.

    - Meet the district central office. Led by the superintendent, they have huge influence on budget, curriculum, scheduling, & policy.

    - They think about costs (the time and resources required to launch new programs) and community buy-in.

    - These people are hired, not voted in, sheltering them from community influence.


Make powerful allies → Leverage Phones, Attendance, and Trust → Turn problems into negotiations →

The District Office is indirectly controlled by the School Board, which has the most influence on school.


With, final say on hiring, budget, & policy, the board can act incredibly quickly and blindside other players.

Bad school boards micromanage day-to-day operations, tell teachers how to teach, and blindside the community with rash decisions.

In red-er states, local school boards are even more powerful. Pre-covid, locals had a lot of trust in these school boards—if a town needed to raise taxes to pay for a clearly beneficial new initiative, people would be willing. Covid broke down a lot of trust and goodwill.

School boards are appointed by VOTE:

Different INTEREST GROUPS (advocacy groups, unions, superintendents’ associations) may have allies on the board. But your parents have the final say - they're the ones who can get administrators and school board officials fired.

Many parents are on the PTO (Parent-teacher organization) and some are on the school board. They are generally receptive to student concerns, but might have different priorities (college matriculation, academic rigor, strict discipline or dress code, religious ideas).

Most parents don't have time for that, but your local government does.

Your city/town is responsible for most of the funding in smaller, wealthier districts and still half the funding in larger districts like NYC. They decide how much taxpayer money goes to schools.

(but they aren’t involved in school policy decisions)

How much money does your school have? → Start an internship program for seniors →

States have secret weapons for turning high school upside-down.

Moves: Hostile takeover, choose funding strategies (that you can break)

Goal: Max out federal funding. Massachusetts took $250 million cash from the feds to make a change they knew would make class worse.


Hostile Takeover → Leapfrog the district → Leverage Attendance →

The federal government... probably doesn't matter to you

Scroll for more power dynamics or jump to the next topic:

Ready to learn the fundamentals of money in schools?

Students control millions of dollars annually, they just don't know it.