Friday, October 26, 2012

Consolidation - Panacea or Problem


Kansas Governor Brownback’s School Efficiency Task Force is looking for educational system inefficiencies that, if corrected, would provide a greater percentage of state resources for classroom instruction. He claims only 15 of 286 school districts spend more than 65% on classroom instruction. School officials maintain that including funds used for classroom support services raises classroom instruction spending for all districts to over 75%. The task force was instructed not to include consolidation of small enrollment school districts in its efficiency recommendations.

Former Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius and the Kansas City Kauffman Foundation commissioned Standard and Poor’s School Evaluation Services to conduct the Kansas School District Efficiency Study, which found that “on average, larger districts appear to be more efficient than smaller districts statewide. … (T)he state’s smaller districts tend to have comparatively high per-student spending levels, which may in part be explained by a lack of economies of scale among these districts.”

School district consolidation, generally opposed in rural areas, would as a practical matter reduce administration and other overhead costs, thus directing a greater percentage of state resources to support classroom instruction. How successful will the Governor’s School Efficiency Task Force’s be? Which will win: politics or your pocketbook? You decide.

In my opinion, some consolidation should be done according to plans developed by the residents of school districts, not by state mandates. But, the State should definitely provide incentives and models for consolidation, as it will be beneficial to all: taxpayers, students, and educators.