The state certainly has an impact on local schools. In California for example the State Board of Education sets standards for education, and recently it publish

The state certainly has an impact on local schools. In California for example the State Board of Education sets standards for education, and recently it published a framework whose first version discouraged students from taking Algebra I in middle school. Delaying algebra to high school and delaying calculus to college are opposite of my own upbringing and seem very wrong to me. It also had other guidelines that I vehemently disagree with, such as de-tracking in favor of heterogeneous student grouping.