School District Consolidation: What Happens When You Assume
Lord knows I’ve beaten the drum on this issue ad nauseum, but it never seems to be enough. Now the state auditor of Delaware claims savings of $50 million through school district consolidation. You can read the report here.
Delaware has 19 districts. The plan would merge them into four.
There are a few problems with this plan, the major one being it assumes no change to current salaries. “We’re not going to get into the guestimates of union negotiations,” said state auditor R. Thomas Wagner Jr.. “That’s really not our place.”
Well, as sure as the sun rises, the salaries and benefits are not going to drop to the level of the lowest paying district, so there go your savings.
But the problems run deeper. State officials who propose district consolidation often act as though they were the first ones to think of it. Look around, dudes.
The same week the Delaware report was released came this story in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, headlined “Big school districts lose big as students leave.” Minnesota has open enrollment and lots of charter schools and the result is parents leaving the larger school districts in droves.
December 2nd, 2009 at 11:04
Wouldn’t big school districts lose more kids to charter schools because big school districts are far more likely to be the urban areas where charter schools tend to be?
December 2nd, 2009 at 17:01
In the 1970′s Delaware went through “consolidation” when a judge decided it was unconstitutional for the center city (Wilmington ) kids to be separate from the much whiter suburban kids. What didn’t come out until the fall when all were grouped into one system was that the center city teachers were paid about 20-25% more than suburban teachers (the city schools had more money per child). Immediately the combined teachers union struck for the higher level of salary for all. Financial disaster. Disaster solved essentially by many private schools starting up and relieving the public schools of the need to educate so many kids.
The point is Delaware has experience with combining union and the new union settling only for the highest wages.
December 3rd, 2009 at 04:22
The politics of school systems destroys education. I know many people who prefer being autodidacts simply because they do not have to deal with the politics of education.
December 6th, 2009 at 21:54
The link to the report is broken.
December 7th, 2009 at 07:21
Check it again, Ryan. It’s working for me.