Good point. This wiki article looks at Proms and prom-type events in other countries. Everything from state-paid to privately-sponsored. Over here the hundreds of thousands of School Districts (roughly equivalent to a County) set their own standards and policies. Most derive their funding from a combination of local Property Taxes, AND (this is a big "and") subsidies from State and Federal Governments. Those subsidies entitle those gov'ts to dictate policy and standards to the districts and schools.
To me, THAT is the weird part: distant politicians and technocrats in Washington DC and Jackson MS telling a smallish Mississippi school what they can and can't allow. But it sets the stage for Federal Court cases like Fricke v. Lynch; if you take the Fed or State dollar, you dance to their tune.
Bookmarks