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.
