RE: District Governance

School Board members are elected, but do not provide direction any more. The rewards of the state and federal incentives speak louder than voice of the community in most districts.
 
 Reality about "personal, organizational or business donations" of community, of parents, is that individual schools, rather then districts have the most appeal. 

 When there are no chairs, no paper towels, when repair of  a PC takes  6 month,... parents will not write to the governor, to the district [not more then  once, anyway :-)  ] or the state senator. 

 They will talk to the principal.

 Today principal has to say "I have no control over this". District provides the services. District also provides the oversight and evaluation.

 It is a bit like if your cleaning service would also be deciding  your promotion and salary increases.

But, all districts are not same. Perhaps in some rural areas, some small districts, governance still works as it used to.  That's why reform should not be done be done by fiat.

 In all districts, voters could have an option to allocate small portion of local taxes to the local school board, if that board will convince that it is doing something useful. We are talking accountability, here.