The Scottish paper will present findings from the 2011 school board survey drawn from 8 Scottish Local authorities that correspond to school districts or municipalities in other national systems. The large-scale survey was undertaken in 2011, and the respondents were either members of the local authority committee that was responsible for decision making about educational issues or senior staff in the service department that oversaw the delivery of education within the local authority. The research provides an investigation of school policy making at the local government level in Scotland. The study asked questions related to why people choose to serve on such committees, how the committees operate and make decisions, what the most important issues were and how much impact, influence and autonomy these committees have. Moreover, the paper analyses the Education Committee’s perceived capacity and competence in various domains of local governance.