School district
School districts are a form of
special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public
primary and
secondary schools.
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 a highly qualified
teacher, to function as the district's
chief executive for carrying out day-to-day decisions and policy implementations. The school board on occasion may also exercise a token
judiciary function in serious
employee or
student discipline matters.
Not all school systems constitute school districts as distinct bodies corporate. In some states, such as
Maryland, all school systems are subordinate to state or local governments. Other states, such as
New York, have both independent school districts and school systems that are subordinate to cities. 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
PBS 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.
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. [
1]
*
Lists of school districts in the United States*
List of the largest school districts in the United States by enrollment*
School division (Virginia)*
:Category:School districts in Canada*
List of education districts in Queensland, Australia*
List of school clusters in the Northern Territory of Australia*
List of school education areas in New South Wales, Australia*
School district drug policies*
London School Board*
2002 Census of Governments
