Wake County Public School System
The Wake County Public School System (WCPSS) is a public school district located in Wake County, North Carolina. With 155,184 students enrolled in 171 schools as of the 2014-2015 academic year, it is the largest public school district in North Carolina and the 17th largest district in the United States.
History
The current school system is the result of a 1976 merger between the previous (historically largely white) Wake County school system and the former (historically largely minority) Raleigh City schools. The merger was proposed initially by business leaders in the early 1970s out of concerns that continued "white flight" from Raleigh's inner-city schools would negatively impact the county's overall economy. Political and educational leaders also hoped that merging the two systems would ease court-mandated desegregation. The proposal proved initially unpopular with residents, however, who rejected it by a 3-1 margin in a non-binding referendum in 1973. School and business leaders instead convinced the North Carolina General Assembly to force the merger.