Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools is so large that, in recent federal data, it enrolled more students than school districts serving Dallas and Philadelphia.
Now a North Carolina lawmaker is preparing legislation that could break the nearly 140,000-student system into smaller districts.
CMS board member Anna London says Republican Rep. David Willis of Union County notified board members that he is drafting the proposal. The legislation would also trigger new school board elections, according to London. Willis had not publicly released the bill as of Wednesday.
CMS currently lists 139,328 students, 184 schools and more than 18,000 employees, ranking us 16th-largest nationally. That places us just behind Houston ISD but ahead of Dallas ISD and Philadelphia’s school district.
The enormous scale has fueled arguments for years over whether Mecklenburg County would be better served by several smaller systems.
Supporters of smaller districts have argued they could provide more local control and make administrators more responsive to individual communities. Critics warn a breakup could create unequal tax bases, facilities and educational opportunities across Mecklenburg County.
A state legislative committee studied the issue extensively in 2018 but stopped short of recommending that CMS or other large systems be divided.
Researchers told lawmakers they found no clear relationship between district size and student academic performance. The committee also found that smaller districts can face higher per-student costs for services such as transportation, maintenance, insurance and school nutrition.
That debate already produced one major change.
In 2018, North Carolina lawmakers passed a law allowing Matthews, Mint Hill, Huntersville and Cornelius to create municipal charter schools with enrollment preference for town residents. None ultimately broke away from CMS.
Matthews formally said in 2020 that creating its own municipal charter system was neither necessary nor financially feasible at the time.
The latest proposal arrives during one of CMS’s most turbulent periods in years. The board fired Superintendent Crystal Hill in September, and federal and state agencies are investigating financial transactions within the district. No charges have been announced.
Any breakup would require lawmakers to tackle far more than school boundaries. North Carolina currently has a process for merging school districts, but no general statutory process for splitting one apart.
