The Facts about School District Consolidation

A friend of McHenry County Blog submitted the following essay about school district consolidation.

Many people argue that consolidating school districts will save money because of “economies of scale”. If they are correct, then larger school districts should be less expensive than smaller school districts.

Let’s examine the evidence.

Illinois has three types of school districts: high school, elementary, and unit. The state divides them into three categories based on enrollment: large, medium and small.

Below are the average expenditures PER CLASSROOM (per pupil times class size) for fiscal year 2013 for each type and size category of school district:

Cost per classroom

Cost per classroom

In short, the FACTS show that not only are there are NO economies of scale in public school districts, there are in fact DIS­economies of scale: bigger school districts spend significantly more than small school districts.

  • LARGE high school districts spent 61% MORE per classroom than SMALL high school districts.
  • LARGE elementary districts spent 71% MORE per classroom than SMALL elementary districts.
  • LARGE unit districts spent 49% MORE per classroom than SMALL unit districts.

The explanation for this pattern is obvious with a little deeper reflection: businesses have incentives to cut costs; governments do not.

The argument by analogy from business to government misses this key point.

= = = = =
Around 1990, a taxpayer group in Wisconsin used cost per classroom data to great effect.


Comments

The Facts about School District Consolidation — 17 Comments

  1. Each consolidation case has to be taken individually but as a general rule bigger school districts mean more powerful teacher unions which means hiked costs for teachers.

    The way Illinois works is if 2 school districts consolidate, the lower salary schedule is discarded so all the teachers from the district that was paying the teachers less get a pay hike.

    Regarding the chart above, the smaller school districts tend to be in rural areas which pay less.

    +++

    Here is another article about consolidation.

    In DuPage County, a “paper” fire protection in Downers Grove (Fairview Fire Protection District) was eliminated (they had subcontracted for fire service from another fire protection district or department).

    The result, an SSA (Special Service Area) tax hike.

    That’s right, the consolidation resulted in a tax hike.

    One less “official” unit of government because SSA’s are not considered an “official” unit of government.

    But SSA’s can levy property taxes.

    If it walks like a duck and sounds like a duck, it’s a duck.

    ReBoot Illinois
    Representative Jeanne Ives: Don’t be duped by claims DuPage County is a consolidation champion
    January 18, 2016
    http://www.rebootillinois.com/2016/01/18/editors-picks/jeanne-ives/rep-ives-dont-be-duped-by-claims-dupage-county-is-a-consolidation-champion/51584

    +++

    SSA Tax Law is found in the Illinois Property Tax Code.

    http://ilga.gov/legislation/ilcs/ilcs4.asp?DocName=003502000HArt.+27&ActID=596&ChapterID=8&SeqStart=82800000&SeqEnd=85200000

  2. Change the rule on pay when consolidating.

    Make it where the higher paid teachers don’t get a raise until the lower teacher catches up to them.

    You can blame unions but politicians of all types don’t need to do everything that a constituent tells them to.

    When politicians get elected if they did what was good for the entire state or country and were true Americans instead of Democrats or Republicans this country would be a role model.

  3. Once again, the analysis starts with the expected outcome they then are solving for.

    Have you ever been to a large high school- Vernon Hills High School? Stevenson? Warren?

    You choose to ignore market pressures.

    Athletic programs, theater programs, computer labs, cafeterias, cutting edge technology…. there is so much more to this story than the cost per student.

    New Trie high school- the highest cost per student in the state, responds to the pressure of their community.

    People move into the community based largely on the schools.

    They Pay taxes based on the community they live in. Consolidation can make sense- but it needs to based on more data than this.

    Not everyone thinks they kids should be educated in a blank box preparing students for jobs that no longer exist.

    Sure, you will all call me names and discard the facts that you can NOT MAKE SWEEPING STATEMENTS based on such incomplete data.

  4. The same data can be analyzed looking at the columns instead of the rows.

    In each size category, high school district cost more than grade school districts.

    This is no surprise.

    Comparing high school district to grade school districts is an apple to oranges comparison since they offer fundamentally different types of instruction to different age groups.

    What is significant is to look at unit districts relative to similiar size elementary and highs school districts.

    If the economies of scale argument is utter bunk, then unit districts should have costs higher than elementary districts, but less than high school districts.

    The chart shows unit districts to be the cheapest acroos all size categories, suggesting some economies of scale can indeed be achieved by consolidating elementary disticts with the high school districts they feed.

  5. While you are fighting over school consolidation Illinois is losing tons of money from no budget. Chicago State U may lay everyone off in May and close their doors.

    http://chicago.suntimes.com/politics/7/71/1262716/study-illinois-lost-53m-bond-sale-due-poor-finances

    Just like Governor Snyder trying to save $100 per day in chemicals and poisoning an entire town which our enemies haven’t done, Rauner not talking about a budget but pushing his probusiness agenda is getting Illinois in more debt

  6. The Democrats have a super majority in the House and Senate, if they all agree they can pass whatever they want and over ride a Governor veto.

  7. And that is why Governor Rauner is investing his personal money and political capital into recruiting and winning legislative races.

    Personally, I think allowing the state to default on bonds would force the financial markets to stop lending to Illinois, forcing a de facto balanced budget based on actual cash flow.

    That would create a political environment wherein service providers and current government employees would force reforms on the ridiculous public pension system we have.

  8. Mark well Jack Franks, a neo republican, won’t agree with the dems along with a few others.

    The time for labels is over.

    The democrats would not support universal healthcare so most of them are cowards and corporatists also.

    http://trofire.com/2016/01/19/flint-residents-still-being-charged-200-monthly-for-toxic-water/

    Flint residents are suing for health, loss of home value and still being charged for poisoned water.

    It doesn’t matter who is more stubborn but without a budget we are all more in the hole and will owe more in Illinois.

    Did you read page 2 of the NW Herald?

    Capitol Fax is not democratically leaning.

  9. As a 14 year member of both a High School and an Elementary School District, having lobbied in Springfield for many years and having listened to all the parties ranting and raving about the inequities in the Illinois school funding formula for decades….

    I can assure you that the Illinois legislature will do nothing to resolve ANY of the issues.

    Most legislators have no notion as to the depth or complexity of the problems.

    Funding is programmed to favor Chicago and those Representatives and Senators from Chicago and Cook County out populate the rest of the State.

    It will continue to be inequitable no matter how much we scream.

    Therefore, if we want better schools, we have to pay for it with our local taxes.

  10. Apparently Rich Miller of CapitolFax believes what, we should not have a balanced budget?

    You can’t balance the budget without reforms unless you just want to endlessly hike taxes.

  11. The comment,

    “Capitol Fax is not democratically leaning,”

    is amusing.

  12. Still, no mention of the gifted children stuck in the inner city school systems.

    A shame that these kids may never have a voice in the world.

    Will anybody in power ever help these kids?

    How about you Steve, what is the answer, please?

    How can we extract those children who are considered gifted out of the debts of despair?

  13. The solution for inner city children is clear: charter schools.

    Charter schools are no longer an experiment.

    They have a 20+ year history in several states, including Michigan, Colorado, Arizona and Texas.

    Today 55% of Detroit school children attend charter schools.

    After Katrina, New Orleans basically dumped the public school model.

    Today 91% of New Orleans students attend charter schools.

    The percent of students scoring at basic and above on all subjects in New Orleans public schools in 2003 was 26%.

    Today that number is 62%. (Source: Louisiana Department of Education)

    The high school graduation rate has also shot up, to 73% from an estimated 54%, although the 2004 figure is in some doubt because — amazingly — the school district failed to maintain the data needed to compute graduation rates twelve years ago!

    The LDoE has had to estimate graduation rates for this pre-Katrina period.

  14. The comment: “Capitol Fax is not democratically leaning.”
    is way up there on the ‘amusing’ scale.

    It would compare to a statement claiming that Rush Limbaugh is not conservative leaning and Cal Skinner is not libertarian leaning.

  15. Our government schools (A.K.A. Public schools) are not accountable.

    The waste of government resources is prolific in all aspects of the government schools.

    How is it that Marian Central provides a superior education at a fraction of the cost of its public counterpart?

    Answered simply, the Catholic schools are accountable to the consumer of the service.

    That is Parents demand performance relative to paying for tuition.

    At Marian Central Catholic they don’t have air conditioning (a must for the new government school buildings and retrofit expenses for older buildings – e.g. McHenry).

    So Kids sweat a little for a month of the total school year, big deal.

    Private schools pay teachers a fraction of the rates in the government schools. (government unions and government pensions the largest of the line items)

    Yet the private schools attract qualified teachers and tehy do a better job.

    This is simply because the teachers hired privately want to teach.

    The waste in the government school system is pervasive.

    Nobody in government school administration is willing to say “lets just do without”.

    That’s because the taxpayers have given them an unlimited checkbook.

    Cal you really should report what the cost of Marian Central is on a per classroom basis as you have done here.

    That side by side comparison should be embarrassing to the government school system.

    Importantly, that would be a real compelling reason to advance a school voucher program.

    Charter schools might allow some degree of competition within the government waste, but full vouchers would allow a parent to decide for themselves what is the best education for their children.

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