Davidson County, Lexington City, and Thomasville City Schools operate as three separate independent school districts within the same county. For over 30 years, residents of Davidson County have considered consolidating the three districts into one county-wide system. Currently, there are 15 city school systems in North Carolina, and some legislators want to force all city school systems to merge with their county LEA.
A new study by E. Lewis Phillips and Ben Ross of Davidson Vision analyzes funding, governance, and operation of the three systems, as well as various merger scenarios. The researchers concluded,
According to the numbers, the best way to maximize available external financial resources for educating all children in Davidson County is to keep the school systems as they are.
As John Hood points out, “a key element of any sensible education-reform agenda should be to downsize schools and school districts, moving power and decisions closer to the families and communities they serve.”
