Here’s The Best School District In NC: Report

A new report has ranked the best school district in North Carolina, and the answer may not surprise you. The website 24/7 Wall St., a Delaware corporation that publishes financial news and commentary, sifted through various school data to determine the best school district in every state.

In North Carolina, Chapel Hill-Carrboro Schools in Orange County topped the list. The district has 12,090 students and spends $11,423 per student, the analysis found. The high school graduation rate is 90.3 percent and 72.1 percent of adults have a bachelor’s degree.

The company evaluated the districts by creating an index based on data in the following categories:

• child poverty
• spending per student
• graduation rate
• teachers per student
• percentage of adults with a bachelor’s degree
• preschool enrollment
• Advanced Placement enrollment

Several school districts in the U.S. spend more than $50,000 per student on education each year, 24/7 Wall St. said, but others spend less than $2,000 per student.

“That difference in spending contributes to major disparities in student outcomes throughout the country,” the authors wrote. “The majority of a school’s budget is spent on staff and teacher salaries. A school that is able to attract the best teachers can give their students a major advantage.”

Indeed, wealthier areas often reap those rewards.

Local sources, including property taxes, account for about 44 percent of all school funding in the U.S. This means most of the best school districts are located in affluent counties where the majority of households earn more than double that of a typical American household.

In Orange County, North Carolina, which includes that school district, the median household income from 2012-2016 was $61,130 — much higher than the national average of $55,322. Furthermore, the poverty rate in Orange County of 12.8 percent was just slightly higher than the national average of 12.7 percent.

The nationwide rankings report, published on Monday, follows a January report from the same site that found North Carolina ranked No. 39 in the country for best schools.

Here’s a breakdown of schools in North Carolina, according to 24/7 Wall St.:

• High school graduation rate: 85.9 percent (22nd highest)
• Public school spending: $9,217 per pupil (6th lowest)
• 8th grade NAEP proficiency: 32.6 percent (math) 30.4 percent (reading)
• Adults with at least a bachelor’s degree: 30.4 percent (24th highest)
• Adults 25-64 with incomes at or above national median: 46.2 percent (12th lowest)

The statistics reflect the fact that the Tar Heel state is among the thriftiest states in the U.S. when it comes to per-pupil spending, according to 24/7 Wall St.

“A well-funded school system can be tremendously beneficial for its students, and North Carolina has one of the most poorly funded school systems in the country. The state allocates only 2.3% of its tax revenues to education spending, the smallest share of any state. Monetarily, North Carolina spends $9,217 per student per year, one of the lowest per-pupil expenditures of any state and about $3,300 less than the U.S. average,” it said.

Patch reporter Dan Hampton contributed to this report.

Photo credit: Shutterstock