House Bill 82 was discussed and approved in the House Education Committee on Tuesday. 

The bill would establish the Study Commission on Large Local School Administrative Units (Commission) to study “whether the LEAs with the five largest student populations in the State experience negative outcomes due to their size and to suggest remedies for the negative outcomes.”
 
The Commission would look at the five districts with the most students: Wake County Public School System, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Guilford County Schools, Winston-Salem/Forsyth County Schools and Cumberland County Schools.
 
Rep. Donny Lambeth (R-Forsyth) stressed that the bill is just a study and the purpose is to determine if large or small districts function better. He noted that we don’t know if larger school size is a problem and arguments can be found on both sides of the issue. On this particular point, Rep. Laura Budd (D-Mecklenburg) asked if the bill could be revised in another committee to study both the positive and negative outcomes of larger districts. The Commission’s current charge is to study just negative outcomes due to LEA size. 
 
Rep. Lambeth also outlined the timeline for the Commission and the member composition process. As outlined in the bill, the Commission must report on the results of the study and recommended changes to the 2026 Session of the General Assembly. 
 
Rep. Julie von Haefen (D-Wake) referenced a 2017 study commission on this topic and asked if specific districts were studied. House Education committee staff indicated that particular districts were not specified in that commission’s charge.
 
In 2017, the Joint Legislative Study Committee on the Division of Local School Administrative Units (Study Committee) submitted a report to the General Assembly. That report can be found here. 
 
The Study Committee found that the "review of literature and existing studies does not document a relationship between LEA size and student education performance. However, a strong inference can be drawn that smaller school size contributes to improved student performance."
 
The bill received a favorable report and was referred to the Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House Committee.