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School districts are a form of special-purpose district which serves to operate the local public primary and secondary schools.
United States
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.
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 signficant 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. *
See also
- 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
External links
"School district"