地方自治体の長からみた教育委員会制度の現状と課題(1) : 全国市町村長の意識調査を手がかりに

The purpose of this paper is to investigate to what extent municipal boards of education have changed due to the educational administration and finance reforms since the late 1990's. A questionnaire regarding the System of the Municipal Board of Education was administered to 400 municipal heads. Data from the questionnaire provides interesting results. First, the municipal boards of education have to a certain extent changed in terms of administrative areas such as "cooperation with community members," "cooperation with municipal leaders, "enforcement of educational policies to deal with regional educational problems," and so on, by educational administration and finance reforms since the late 1990's. However, the difference between boards of education that have actively coped with self-reforms, and ones that have remained as they were, has become to be tangible. Second, almost all municipal heads perceive that they have dealt with their board of education while considering neutrality of education. Third, almost all heads think that education is indispensable in terms of community revitalization. Fourth,it is shown that many heads evaluate positively current municipal boards of education system. Hereafter, a more careful examination of what boards of education should to be in the future will need further consideration from other points of view (e.g. board members,parents and so on).