Public schools in the U.S. are under the control of state and local government, but they are run by school districts. School districts are locally governed. A school district is a legal body which has no authority to tax and must depend on another local government (town, county, city) for funding. Usually its governing body is elected by popular vote but it is sometimes also appointed by governmental officials. It is often called a school board, but can go under the name of board of education, school committee, board of trustees, etc. Typically, the body appoints a superintendent. This person is most often an experienced public school administrator who is to function as the district's chief executive carrying out policy decisions. The school board may also exercise a quasi-judicial function in serious employee or student discipline matters.
An important consideration is who has governing power over the school district. In Chicago Illinois we recently saw a dispute over exactly this issue. The Illinois legislature put governing power over the Chicago Public Schools (CPS) under the mayor's control. Charles Payne describes this transfer in power and the large impact it had on the state. [2] CPS is the City of Chicago's district #299. Governing had previously resided in a school board. Under that governance structure, power and responsibility operates under an internal system of checks and balances. Each district locally-elected board is responsible for the progress of its own district. The board is in charge of hiring a superintendent, who hires principals and other administrators. The board must approve the appointments. Traditionally, educators occupied such posts.
The governance system now for the City of Chicago is one in which the whole 600 school system (nearly a half million students), the third largest school district in the US, is completely "accountable" to the mayor. This is bec
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