A Fine Point

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The editors who craft the Post-Gazette’s daily stands on the issues affecting the region, the state and the nation hold an on-line conversation with readers about key topics in the news. The PG editorial writers are: Tom Waseleski, Reg Henry, Susan Mannella, Tony Norman and Dan Simpson.  

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Schooled for efficiency

 Tom Waseleski

If a new state were created today and it had to set up and organize its school districts, you know it wouldn't use Pennsylvania as a model. This state, of course, has 501 school districts (soon to be 500 due to the merger of Center and Monaca), drawn up around local communities. Some of them are affluent, single-municipality districts; others are poor, struggling systems with no local tax base. No surprise that the Mt. Lebanons and Upper St. Clairs do very well -- not so for the Duquesnes, Midlands and Clairtons.

Gov. Ed Rendell's bold but probably quixotic plan to create a legislative commission that would cut the number of districts to 100 might address the funding imbalance. It could also weed out enough duplication by combining small systems to improve efficiency and, who knows, actually reduce costs (other states have county-based school systems). But there's no magic to the goal of 100 districts. Maybe the ideal for this state's student population is actually 200 or 250. While research generally shows that smaller schools and smaller classrooms are better for learning,studies are mixed as to the optimal size of a school district. 

Regardless of the enrollment number that delivers the greatest efficiency to taxpayers, it's worth keeping in mind that the product here is an educated graduate. In the end, any consolidation plan must be designed for student achievement. The odds are strong that individual districts and narrow-minded legislators will deep-six Rendell's plan. But it's worth a look and a healthy debate.

  

Posted Feb 06 2009, 10:44 AM by Tom Waseleski
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Comments

Susan Mannella wrote re: Schooled for efficiency
on Fri, Feb 6 2009 11:15 AM

I agree, Tom, that there are too many school districts that are too small to provide their students adequate educations, let alone exceptional programs.

However, I don’t like the governor’s proposal for several reasons. For one thing, his stated goal of no more than 100 districts is problematic. With 67 counties in Pennsylvania, that means we’re talking about countywide school systems in many areas, with two or maybe three around the larger population centers. I might have been comfortable with the governor putting forward a number that would trigger such massive change if he had first shown some hard and fast data that would buttress that argument.

Another troubling component of the governor’s proposal for me is the hammer: A study commission would come up with two plans, which then would be subject to up-or-down votes by the Legislature. If both fail, which I think is likely, the state Board of Education then would impose a plan of its choosing.

That’s too much power for a dozen people who are virtually unknown to most Pennsylvanians. Setting educational policy is one thing. Cutting the number of districts from 500 to 100 would be a much broader transformation of the state. The impact on property values is just one huge question mark.

I’d rather see active intervention in the form of staff members and financial incentives aimed at encouraging small districts to join forces, the way that Center Area and Monaca recently did. Hold them up as an example, show other districts how a merger can work to their advantage with real-time examples. I think that makes more sense, and is more likely to be successful.

kevin morris wrote re: Schooled for efficiency
on Sun, Feb 8 2009 9:25 AM

Susan, your points regarding the sledgehammer-like approach to these changes are dead on, but the "incentives to motivate districts to change" approach will only work in situations, like Center and Monaca, where the two districts are both struggling. You may be able to load on the incentives sufficiently to get, say, Clairton to merge with Duquesne, but Jefferson Hills? No way. Our school district boundaries are  tools for economic segregation, and "the haves" won't share voluntarily.