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To people who are in states with these mega-districts, I want to ask how they work out in terms of enrollment.
In states with very small school districts, many parents attempt to choose "the best district" for their child. This is probably a fool's errand, since the strongest correlations between school district performance are social class and race. The "good" districts are "good" because they tend to have wealthier white and Asian students, while the "bad" ones are lower income and have more black and Latino students.
Regardless, on the rare occasions where there is school district consolidation, you often see white middle class parents moving out of the district entirely. This doesn't seem like it's a feasible option with county-wide school districts. Are there pretty hard and fast feeder zones, so that the rich neighborhoods and the poor neighborhoods don't end up integrated in the schools? Or is there just a lot more use of private schools?
What happens in countywide districts is you'll have attendance zones. Those will get adjusted periodically (which can turn into a bloodbath) when enrollments rise or lower, population patterns change or, up until fairly recently, Court ordered desegregation. The system I worked for in MD was under Court supervision for that until 8 or 10 years ago.
El Paso County which is Colorado Springs has 17 school districts I believe.
Denver which is similar population has only one.
There is a huge difference in quality from one district to another in El Paso County which is the Colorado Springs area.
They have a huge mixture from some of the worst districts in the state to some of the best. There is a huge difference between Harrison District 2 which is a district of mainly run-down, old duplexes to District 12 which is the Broadmoor area which is mainly huge homes and large lots against the mountains.
The odd thing about Colorado is that a majority of the funding comes from the state as opposed to local government as the property taxes are extremely low in Colorado.
I know Douglas County, Nebraska which is Omaha has many districts also. At least 6 that I could count.
Clark County which is Las Vegas has one district covering the entire county.
Good information. Colorado has a total of 179 school districts. The two largest are Denver Public Schools and Jefferson County Schools with about 85k students each. The smallest is Agate School District 300, which has all of 33 students. Ten Colorado school districts have fewer than 100 students.
I am not sure but it seems like Hawaii has only one statewide school district.
And also the worst schools in the nation, apparently
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