As you may have heard, on December 1st Commissioner of Education Richard Cate issued his recommendations for school district reorganization, which is now clearly consolidation (reducing the number of school districts and boards in Vermont from 287 to as few as 50). These recommendations nominally came from the "conversation" held statewide over the past year, although it is common knowledge that attendees at these meeting were overwhelmingly opposed to mandated school district consolidation. This is the same reaction Vermonters have had for almost 100 years of recorded attempts at the state level to mandate consolidation.
The VSBA is well aware of the issues facing Vermont school districts, and is on record as favoring consolidations when local districts choose this option. At the same time we also understand that there are innumerable unanswered questions about the Commissioner’s recommendations and considerable research outlining the pitfalls. Probably the best exposition of our concerns is a letter our Executive Director, John Nelson, sent to the Commissioner in November of this year. This was in response to a request from the Commissioner for the VSBA viewpoint, and is eloquent, thorough, and compelling. John has summarized the much longer document for this issue of From the Board Room. Rather than excerpt from his work, I will let it speak for itself. School board members who want the complete letter will find it on our website (www.vtvsba.org).
Excerpts from VSBA’s Letter to the Commissioner
Beginning in 2000, this Association made its participation in governance reform activities one of its stated priorities. Since 2000, we have worked on-site with 88 school districts in 19 supervisory unions as they have engaged in community processes to study the question of whether school district consolidation would be beneficial to those communities. It is important to note that in each instance the driving force behind the initiative to study consolidation has been one or more local school boards. Few of the initiatives launched in the past seven years have resulted in community acceptance of proposals to consolidate school districts. Our experience has been that communities value their school districts and are willing to tolerate certain "inefficiencies" in order to retain the authority to make fundamental decisions about their schools.
Even without the capacity to do extensive research, we have had little trouble finding research studies that call into question the often-assumed benefits of school consolidation. Among the findings were:
- Pennsylvania study sponsored by the Fordham Foundation arrived at this conclusion. "If the history of public education tells us anything, district consolidations, and the inevitable school consolidations that follow, are generally both bad ideas. In the short run, consolidation promises lower costs and taxes and better student performance. But neither happens. Over the longer haul, consolidation sucks power upward, and away from parents, students and local conditions, to centralized political arrangements where unions and other special interests have more political clout."1
- An analysis of the results of school district consolidation in several states arrived at this conclusion. "In summary: the educational and financial results of state mandated school district consolidations do not meet legislated expectations; there is no ‘ideal’ size for school districts; smaller districts have higher achievement, affective and social outcomes; there is no solid foundation for the belief that eliminating school districts will improve education, enhance cost-effectiveness or promote equality; and students from low income areas have better achievement in small schools."2
- A very recent analysis of school district consolidation in Indiana focused on student achievement and school performance. "The research suggests that the factors which affect student achievement to the greatest extent appear to include the following characteristics: smaller school size; smaller class size, primarily at elementary schools; a challenging curriculum; and highly qualified teachers in every classroom."3
VSBA recommendations
- Decisions to consolidate school districts should be made locally, by the voters in the school districts to be affected by the consolidation.
- Bruce Richardson’s doctoral dissertation of 1994 is still recognized as the most comprehensive look at the history of governance reform efforts in Vermont. Richardson concludes his dissertation with one clear recommendation: governance changes must be preceded by the involvement of local citizens and can not succeed if mandated from the top down.
- At the annual conference of the Vermont Superintendents Association and the VSBA last month, Dr. Jerry Johnson summarized his work on this issue by saying, "It is absolutely essential that any consolidation of school districts be the product of local democratic processes. If it isn’t, in my observation, drawn from my research in several states, is that it will do considerable harm."
- Make the processes for forming union and unified school districts more accessible by clarifying and simplifying the statutory requirements.
- Provide Incentives to Encourage Local Consideration of Governance Change Proposals.
- We have yet to see a district vote in favor of consolidation when they will "lose" financially from the consolidation.
- We believe a phase-in period whereby new tax rates are adjusted gradually, over a three to five year period, would be a meaningful incentive for those districts.
- Address the Clarification of School Board/Administrator/Electorate Roles and Responsibilities to Distinguish Between Management and Policy Functions.
- We believe this recommendation can be achieved in part by action on the part of the legislature and in part by local activities.
- We recommend that the State Board and the Commissioner’s office support a thorough review of relevant statutes in the next legislative session with the objective being to eliminate vague or conflicting sections of the law.
- We also recommend the State Board and the Commissioner’s office support a legislative appropriation to fund the Vermont Education Leadership Alliance process in more districts, which works to clarify the roles of the school boards, electorates and school administrators.
Endnotes
1 Wanders, John T. Why School Consolidation is a Bad Idea for Pennsylvania, The Thomas B. Fordham Foundation, April 10, 2003
2 Bard, Joe et al, Rural School Consolidation Report, Research Summary for National Rural Education Association, April 2005.
3 Plucker, Jonathan A. et al, Assessing the Policy Environment for School Corporation Collaboration, Cooperation and Consolidation in Indiana, Center for Evaluation and Education Policy, Indiana University, Summer 2007.
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