New wave of school district consolidations predicted in Iowa
The Chicago Tribune reports that schools in Iowa facing declining enrollment, budget cutbacks, and increases in operating costs no longer can look to the state for the financial assistance they received in the past. As a result, state and school leaders believe a new wave of school district consolidation is on the horizon that could alter the landscape of education in the state. “They're in a real balancing act,” said Judy Jeffrey, director of the Iowa Department of Education. “I think there's going to be another wave of consolidation.” State officials say enrollment has dropped in two-thirds of Iowa's 362 school districts. Those districts lose more than $5,000 in state aid for each student who leaves. District leaders were warned last spring that 60 school districts were on track to operate in the red in 2008 and 2009. “I see right now more districts in potential financial difficulty than I've seen in the almost nine years I've been doing this,” said Larry Sigel, school finance director for the Iowa Association of School Boards. He helps train school leaders on how to manage their budgets. In 2004, lawmakers started to phase out a state budget guarantee that bailed out schools struggling with declining enrollment. And last year, the legislature gave the Iowa Board of Education power to shut down school districts that run in the red for two years in a row. Education officials note Iowa has experienced three consolidation movements since 1900, with the last round in the 1980s. That's when the economy soured and state officials raised education standards. At that time, lawmakers offered financial incentives for districts to merge. Some education officials are predicting a similar scenario now, but without any handouts from the state.
Source: Chicago Tribune, 8/25/08, By Associated Press
[Editor’s Note: The Associated Press reports below that budget woes are prompting two Pennsylvania districts to explore consolidation. In 2007, Maine adopted a law calling for consolidation of the state’s 152 school administrative systems into 80. For background and resources on consolidations, see the next two links. The Maine School Boards Association (MSBA) called for a review of the law, arguing that its projected benefits are unsubstantiated and its negative consequences underappreciated. MSBA’s position statement is included in its 2007-2008 resolutions, at the fourth link; see item 4.10 under “Special Resolutions.” According to the story at the next link, the Maine Department of Education’s finance director, Jim Rier, recently told legislators that consolidation plans already approved account for nearly 103,000 students, or 52% of the state’s total. The Kennebec Journal has a detailed account of one consolidation process among six towns, which are pursuing an alternative structure intended to preserve relatively more self-determination for smaller towns. One overriding concern is that district consolidations, by eliminating a smaller community’s own school board, pave the way for school closings in that community. In fact, it is argued, projected cost savings may have more to do with school closings, since many districts already have realized economies of scale in operations and administrative overhead through voluntary inter-district agreements. A sympathetic appraisal of the consolidation initiative is at the next link on the Ed Money Watch Blog of the New America Foundation. Finally, the Central Maine Morning Sentinel contrasts the trend in Maine with that in neighboring New Hampshire, where the number of school districts is inching up.]
Associated Press, 9/2/08, By Martha Raffaele & Ramesh Santanam
NSBA School Law pages on Maine school consolidation
BoardBuzz on Maine consolidations
MSBA on Maine consolidation legislation
WMTW 8, 8/22/08, By Staff
Kennebec Journal, 8/31/08, By Matthew Stone
Ed Money Watch blog on Maine consolidations
Central Maine Morning Sentinel, 8/17/08, By Matthew Stone