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Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Are school districts outdated?
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
A story ran over the weekend about the latest attempt by some people in Buckhead to leave Atlanta. Those behind the plan said they would be free of Atlanta city schools and children would attend private schools or charter schools.
It’s too soon to tell if Buckhead will succeed, but it raises an interesting question over how the state set up school systems. For the most part, each county in Georgia has its own school district. Some cities - such as Atlanta, Decatur and Marietta - run their own.
Is this set-up antiquated? When you look at how large some of our counties are and how diverse each community is, one wonders if this is an effective way to design a school district.
Of course there are advantages. Larger districts allow for the economies of scale buying power. You also have a higher level of expertise among teachers and administrators. And large districts can provide for special programs — such as schools for the arts and technology — that smaller systems can’t afford to offer.
How would you set up a school district? Do we need a Fulton County school system or would it better to have different school districts for Roswell, Sandy Springs, Dunwoody and College Park?
