How many high schools are there in the US?  By High School, I mean
schools that result in the awarding of a high school diploma -- could
be one school K-12, 9-12, 10-12 -- but must include 12th grade...

According to the "Statistical Abstract of the United
States 2001" and its Education section these are the counts for high
schools in the U.S.:

PUBLIC
  Secondary only:  22,103
  Combined: 3,770

PRIVATE
  Secondary only: 2,487
  Combined: 8,292

TOTAL = 36,652


The Education section of the statistical abstract is linked below. 
The charts from which the data is taken are Table 229 (public schools)
and Table 249:
http://www.census.gov/prod/2002pubs/01statab/educ.pdf 
 
U.S. Center for Education Statistics (Digest of Education Statistics)
annual report is the source of the information.  

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

---

Clarification of Answer by omnivorous-ga on 05 Nov 2002 15:59 PST

Justwondering --

Secre901 is incorrect, as you'll note if you read the middle column in
the two tables mentioned.

Thank you for you kind rating!

Best regards,

Omnivorous-GA

This is exactly what I needed to know!  Thank you!  I had the worst
time trying to find this on my own!

Hi justwondering,
The figures referenced by omnivorous refers to the number of students
attending each type of school (in thousands), not the number of school
themselves.
Regards,
secret901-ga

Oops.  I take back my comment.  Omnivorous was right. My apologies.