01192pab a2200157 454500008004000000100001600040245006100056260000900117300001300126362000800139520076100147650003900908650004100947650002100988773002501009180718b1996   xxu||||| |||| 00| 0 eng d  aOrr, Marion  aUrban politics and school reformbthe case of Baltimore.  c1996  ap.314-45  aJan  a"Relatively little is known about the remarkable increase in the use of special districts for urban service delivery. The author assesses the utility of four alternative theoretical perspectives on the uneven use of districts in metropolitan areas. Empirical analysis of district patterns in more than 300 metropolitan areas in 1987 reveals multiple influences on district use. Local government structure and legal factors emphasized by institutional-reform and metropolitan-ecology perspectives are especially important relative to the service-demand factors asserted by public-choice and critical political-economy perspectives. Of particular note are different motivations associated with use of different geographic and financial subtypes of districts"  aEducational change - United States  aMunicipal government - United States  aLocal government  aUrban Affairs Review