Lawmaker plans bill to break up Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, board member says

CHARLOTTE — A Republican lawmaker from Union County is planning on introducing a bill to break up Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools, Channel 9 learned Wednesday.

CMS Board Member Anna London confirmed to Channel 9 that Rep. David Willis’s staff contacted her office to let her know about the plan to break up the state’s second-largest school district.

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The news was first reported by The Charlotte Ledger.

This comes in the wake of several controversial issues in the school district, including the termination of superintendent Dr. Crystal Hill and multiple ongoing investigations into alleged mishandling of money and cronyism.

Willis is one of the chairmen of the House Education K-12 committee.

CMS has about 140,000 students enrolled across 185 schools and facilities. It’s also one of the top-20 largest school districts in the country.

This isn’t the first time that the prospect of splitting CMS has been raised. Back in 2018, the town of Matthews explored breaking from the district, and a law was passed to let Matthews, Mint Hill and other municipalities operate their own charter schools.

This is a developing story and will be updated. Check back on WSOCTV.com and watch Eyewitness News for the latest.