As we note in our federalism chapter, there are 13,051 school districts in the United States. They do not have a free hand, as they must deal with various state and federal requirements. A good example comes from The Narberth-Bala Cynwyd [Pennsylvania] Patch reports:
Tuesday night at Narberth Borough Hall, at the tail end of its regular meeting, the Lower Merion and Narberth Democratic Committee hosted a forum with the Democratic candidates for the five Lower Merion School District Board of Directors seats set to open at the end of the current term.
...
Marrissa Golden, a professor of Political Science at Bryn Mawr College with a daughter in the district, wondered if the pressure to achieve, a pressure she attributes in part to programs like No Child Left Behind, is doing harm to students. She said her top priority if elected would be to target and mollify the underlying causes of the achievement gap rather than scramble for superficial solutions.
