School district

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School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.

1 United States
- 1.1 Terminology
2 International comparisons
3 See also
4 External links

[edit] United States

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Public education in many communities in the USA has been made the function of a school district serving one or more towns. A school district is a unique body corporate and politic, usually with districts being coequal to that of a city or a county, and has similar powers including taxation and eminent domain. Its legislative body, elected by direct popular vote, is called a school board, board of trustees, or school committee, and this body appoints a superintendent, usually an experienced public school administrator, to function as the district's chief executive for carrying out day-to-day decisions and policy implementations. The school board may also exercise a quasi-judicial function in serious employee or student discipline matters.

Not all school systems constitute school districts as distinct bodies corporate. A few states have no school systems independent of county or municipal governments. One prominent example is Maryland, where all school systems are run at the county or, in the case of Baltimore City, the county-equivalent level. Other states, such as New York, have both independent school districts and school systems that are subordinate to cities[1]. Uniquely, the Hawaii State Department of Education functions as a single state-wide school district.

In the 2002 Census of Governments, the United States Census Bureau enumerated the following numbers of school systems in the United States:

13,506 school district governments
178 state-dependent school systems
1,330 local-dependent school systems
1,196 education service agencies (agencies providing support services to public school systems)

The functioning of a school district can be a key influence and concern in local politics. A well run district with safe and clean schools, graduating enough students to good universities, can enhance the value of housing in its area, and thus increase the amount of tax revenue available to carry out its operations. Conversely, a poorly-run district may cause growth in the area to be far less than surrounding areas, or even a decline in population.

In addition to the various schools it operates and the various support facilities they require for their operation, such as school bus yards, laundries, warehouses, and kitchens, some very large school districts operate medical clinics, television stations (many of which are official CBS, ABC, NBC, Fox, PBS or NPR affiliates for their respective markets), and fully functioning campus police departments. Additionally it is not unusual to find public libraries or recreation programs operated by a school system.

In Virginia, school districts are called school divisions because funding for education comes through the city or county government that the school division is located in.

[edit] Terminology

The examples and perspective in this article or section may not represent a nationwide view of the subject.
Please improve this article or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Although these terms can vary slightly from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, these are typical definitions for school district constitution:

An elementary school district usually includes kindergarten and grades one through six or eight.
A high school district usually includes grade nine and above but may include grade seven and above.
A unified school district includes both elementary and high school educational levels.
The word union in the name of a district indicates that it was formed from two or more districts.
The word joint in a district's name indicates that it includes territory from more than one county.
The word independent in a district's name is generally associated with states in which the default school district covers a county. It indicates that the district is separate from any county district.
- For example, in Kentucky, an "independent" district is generally associated with a city, or sometimes with a cluster of adjoining cities. Unlike county districts, independent districts can cross county lines, as in the Caverna Independent Schools centered on Horse Cave and Corbin Independent Schools. However, some districts in the state are independent despite not having "Independent" in their official name, as in the Bowling Green City Schools and Paducah Public Schools.

[edit] International comparisons

While a number of other countries have school districts, they often vary drastically from the US model. Often other jurisdictions will have autonomous districts (or equivalent) authorities to represent various groups seeking autonomy, such as linguistic groups, or religious groups. The U.S. school districts, which tend to be based largely on geographical divisions, generally avoid this, as English is such a dominant language, and religion is largely excluded from public education. In much of the world, religious (confessional), linguistic, and other divisions, are a significant factor in organizing school districts or equivalent authorities.

In England and Wales, school boards were established in 1870, and abolished in 1902, with county council and county borough councils becoming the Local Education Authorities. [2]