The size of schools and districts in which they are located has become a salient policy issue in recent years. While consolidation of school districts and expanding high school size were in vogue from the 1960s until recently, funding agencies are now sponsoring projects to reduce school size under the assumption that smaller schools will lead to…

Although the public school choice plan implemented in Richmond, California, in 1987 through 1990 received much favorable publicity, the school district filed for bankruptcy in 1991. This paper describes the plan and the events preceding financial collapse and presents data on student absenteeism, dropout rates, test scores, and school…