11.   TOWN halls should not use dirty tricks, harassment or intimidation to stop schools opting out of local council control, Education Secretary John Patten warned yesterday.

12.   Americans will surely support this approach, despite the fact that it challenges local control.

13.   And everybody, of course, demands home rule, local control, autonomy.

14.   And if the great tradition of local control has resulted in catastrophe, why is that an argument for the sanctity of local control?

15.   And in some areas, like education, local control can be an obstacle to the very equality the survey detected.

16.   And he has high hopes that the Bush administration will be generous and more supportive of local control.

17.   And that local control is deeply ingrained in political tradition here.

18.   And it would not compromise local control if Congress set up a fund states could draw from to carry out reforms that would meet basic performance specifications.

19.   Another is local control vs. central authority in Washington.

20.   As a practical matter, what drives high school taxes is a ferociously misguided and horribly outdated reverence for local control.