Many readers will agree that the conditions in our schools need improvement, that problems in schools are closely linked with the problems in our society, and that local control has diminished. The yielding of local control has contributed substantially to these problems. Uniform standards and minimum performance criteria have been tried and the results are dismal. It is a difficult thing, probably, for government people to accept the idea that the most responsible thing to do is to exercise less direct responsibility, to be greatly concerned and supportive without specifying the improvements to be made. But education today needs just that, the opportunity and the responsibility for local schools, for teachers in the classroom, for citizens in a neighborhood, to run their own schools. (Author/MLF)