An independent school district (ISD) is a type of school district in some U.S. states for primary and secondary education, which operates as an entity that is independent and separate from any municipality, county, or state. As such the administrative leadership of such districts is selected from within the district itself and has no direct responsibility to any other governmental authority. This independence normally also implies that the district has its own taxing authority that is outside of the direct control of other governmental entities.
The state of Texas has by far the largest number of independent school districts with almost all of its districts falling into this category (Stafford Municipal School District being the notable exception). The term independent may be used to describe other types of school districts though this is less common.
The use of the term independent can vary in actual application in those states that even use the term. In Kentucky, for example, all school districts there are independent of the state, county, and municipal governments. However a district is normally only referred to as independent if its jurisdiction does not cover an entire county, instead covering a city or cluster of cities.
Read more about Independent School District: History
Famous quotes containing the words independent, school and/or district:
“For myself I found that the occupation of a day-laborer was the most independent of any, especially as it required only thirty or forty days in a year to support one. The laborer’s day ends with the going down of the sun, and he is then free to devote himself to his chosen pursuit, independent of his labor; but his employer, who speculates from month to month, has no respite from one end of the year to the other.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“While most of today’s jobs do not require great intelligence, they do require greater frustration tolerance, personal discipline, organization, management, and interpersonal skills than were required two decades and more ago. These are precisely the skills that many of the young people who are staying in school today, as opposed to two decades ago, lack.”
—James P. Comer (20th century)
“Most works of art, like most wines, ought to be consumed in the district of their fabrication.”
—Rebecca West (1892–1983)