School District Consolidation Research Articles

School district consolidation in North Carolina: Impacts on school composition and finance, crime outcomes, and educational attainment

In this paper I analyze longitudinal data from North Carolina to study K-12 school district consolidations, or the merging of multiple districts into a single administrative unit. I use difference-in-differences and event study models to identify effects on theoretically related school- and district-level mechanisms as well as long-term youth outcomes. In contexts where districts consolidate, per-pupil expenditures on instruction and district support services decrease, and schools become more racially integrated. However, youth exposed to mergers are no more likely to be convicted of a crime in early adulthood than those unexposed. These null effects hold when looking at conviction rates by race and by type of crime and when analyzing another key outcome, educational attainment. My results thus provide causal evidence confirming prior research suggesting that consolidation may: 1) reduce the operational costs of schools without negatively affecting students, and 2) support efforts to address persistent racial isolation between schools.

The Effect of School District Consolidation on Student Achievement: Evidence From Arkansas

School district consolidation is one of the most widespread education reforms of the last century, but surprisingly little research has directly investigated its effectiveness. To examine the impact of consolidation on student achievement, this study takes advantage of a policy that requires the consolidation of all Arkansas school districts with enrollment of fewer than 350 students for two consecutive school years. Using a regression discontinuity model, we find that consolidation has either null or small positive impacts on student achievement in math and English Language Arts (ELA). We do not find evidence that consolidation in Arkansas results in positive economies of scale, either by reducing overall cost or by allowing for a greater share of resources to be spent in the classroom.

John M. Amis and Paul M. Wright, eds. Race, Economics, and the Politics of Educational Change: The Dynamics of School District Consolidation in Shelby County, Tennessee. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2018. Pp. 274. $59.95 (cloth).

John M. Amis and Paul M. Wright, eds. <i>Race, Economics, and the Politics of Educational Change: The Dynamics of School District Consolidation in Shelby County, Tennessee</i>. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2018. Pp. 274. $59.95 (cloth).

What Happens when Separate and Unequal School Districts Merge?

We study the welfare effects of school district consolidation, i.e. the integration of disjoint school districts into a centralised clearinghouse. We show theoretically that, in the worst-case scenario, district consolidation may unambiguously reduce students’ welfare, even if the student-optimal stable matching is consistently chosen. However, on average all students experience expected welfare gains from district consolidation, particularly those who belong to smaller and over-demanded districts. Using data from the Hungarian secondary school assignment mechanism, we compute the actual welfare gains from district consolidation in Budapest and compare these to our theoretical predictions. We empirically document substantial welfare gains from district consolidation for students, equivalent to attending a school five kilometres closer to the students’ home addresses. As an important building block of our empirical strategy, we describe a method to consistently estimate students’ preferences over schools and vice versa that does not fully assume that students report their preferences truthfully in the student-proposing deferred acceptance algorithm.

Race, Economics, and the Politics of Educational Change: The Dynamics of School District Consolidation in Shelby County, Tennessee ed. by John M. Amis and Paul M. Wright

Race, Economics, and the Politics of Educational Change: The Dynamics of School District Consolidation in Shelby County, Tennessee ed. by John M. Amis and Paul M. Wright

The Disintegration of Memphis-Shelby County, Tennessee: School District Secession and Local Control in the 21st Century

In this qualitative case study, we explore the political impulses behind suburban secession from the 2013 Memphis-Shelby County merger, the largest school district consolidation in recent history. Decades removed from the Civil Rights Movement, during a period of stark inequality, colorblind law and policymaking, and a diminished understanding of education as a societal benefit, the central suburban rationale for secession, local control, carries new weight. It gives already privileged communities a race-neutral, legally sanctioned, and politically persuasive way to discuss resource accumulation that maps onto existing racial and economic segregation. Memphis-area lessons offer insight into an increasing number of secession struggles and enrich our understanding of how educational advantage is consolidated in the 21st-century metropolis.

School district consolidation policies: endogenous cost inefficiency and saving reversals

Some education policy studies suggest that consolidation of public school districts saves resources. However, endogeneity in cost models would result in incorrect estimates of the effects of consolidation. We use a new stochastic frontier methodology to examine district expenditures while handling endogeneity. Using the data from California, we find that the effects of student achievement and education market concentration on expenditure per pupil are substantially larger when endogeneity is handled. Our findings are robust to concerns such as instrumental variable adequacy and spatial interactions. Our consolidation simulations indicate that failure to address endogeneity can result in unrealistic expectations of savings.

Estimating scale economies and the optimal size of school districts: A flexible form approach

This paper investigates estimation methods to model the relationship between school district size, costs per student and the organisation of school districts. We show that the assumptions on the functional form strongly affect the estimated scale economies and offer two possible solutions to allow for more flexibility in the estimation method. First, we introduce a model by adding higher‐degree district size polynomials, allowing for multiple optima. Second, we develop a Fourier cost function, innovative in the literature on scale economies in education. We then compare both models to classical approaches in the literature. We illustrate how a minor change in the estimation method can alter policy conclusions significantly using Flemish school district data. In doing so, we find sizeable potential cost savings from the consolidation of school districts, especially at the lower tail of the district–size distribution. The organisational transition from small to large school districts is characterised by an interval between two optima. Beyond an apparent slowdown in cost savings in medium‐sized school districts, cost savings from school district consolidation increase again, up to the optimal size of around 6,500 students. Beyond this optimum, school districts incur diseconomies of scale. The commonly used quadratic form (‘U’‐shaped cost function) overestimates scale economies, and fails to identify the interval between both optima.

Politics first: Examining the practices of the multi-district superintendent

Over the past decade, multiple states have implemented a form of regional school district consolidation referred to as multi-district unions. Their organizational structure enables districts to retain individual school boards within regional local education agencies, all of which are overseen by a superintendent and a central board. However, no empirical research has been conducted to date on the ensuing work of multi-district superintendents. In our exemplary case study, we analyze time records, interviews, and observations to understand the role allocations and work of one multi-district superintendent. We find the division of time and ensuing responsibilities of the multi-district superintendent is predominantly political to the organizational structure of the union, and we conclude with implications for policy and practice.

School district consolidation: Market concentration and the scale‐efficiency tradeoff

Consolidation is often proposed as a strategy for increasing school district quality without increasing educational funding. However, if consolidation reduces competition in the local school market and reduces efficiency, any savings from exploiting economies of scale may be lost to increased inefficiency. We use a stochastic cost function to investigate these effects for districts in Texas. We find important economies of scale, but we also find that increased market concentration leads to increased cost inefficiency. Finally, we illustrate the practical importance of these two potentially offsetting factors in a simulation that considers consolidating Texas school districts to county‐level districts. We find that failure to consider the effect on competition can lead to large overestimates of the benefits of consolidation.

How Does School District Consolidation Affect Property Values? A Case Study of New York

This article explores the impact of school district consolidation on house values based on house sales in upstate New York State from 2000 to 2012. By combining propensity score matching (PSM) and double-sales data to compare house value changes in consolidating and comparable school districts, we find that, except in one relatively large district, consolidation has a negative impact on house values during the years right after it occurs and that this effect then fades away and is eventually reversed. This pattern suggests that it takes time either for the advantages of consolidation to be apparent or for the people who prefer consolidated districts to move in. Finally, as in previous studies, the long-run impacts of consolidation on house values are positive in census tracts that initially have low incomes, but negative in high-income census tracts, where parents may have a relatively large willingness to retain the nonbudgetary advantages of small districts.

Schools and Location: Tiebout, Alonso, and Governmental Finance Policy

AbstractMany discussions of school finance policy fail to consider how households respond to policies that change the attractiveness of different residential locations. We develop a general equilibrium model that incorporates workplace choice, residential choice, and political choice of tax and expenditure levels. Importantly, we consider multiple workplaces, a fundamental feature of today's metropolitan landscape. This basic model permits investigating how accessibility and public goods interact in a metropolitan area. The model is used to analyze two conventional policy initiatives: school district consolidation and district power equalization. The surprising conclusion is that school quality and welfare can fall for all families when these restrictions on choice are introduced.

Improving Educational Opportunity and Equity through School District Consolidation in Maine

In 2007 Maine passed sweeping school district consolidation legislation mandating a reduction in the number of Maine school districts from 290 to approximately 80. The primary goals of the policy were to improve the educational opportunities for all students in the state; and to reduce costs through increased efficiency in the delivery of education programs and services. Based primarily on interviews with district leaders, this article describes the impacts of Maine’s school district consolidation policy on educational opportunities and equity within 24 regional school districts, one year after their mergers. Findings illustrate the different choices districts made when consolidating their educational programs, the outcomes of these efforts, and the strategies and structures districts used to implement change.

SMALL RURAL SCHOOL DISTRICT CONSOLIDATION IN TEXAS: AN ANALYSIS OF ITS IMPACT ON COST AND STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

Historically, the number of public school districts in the United States has decreased despite a dramatic increase in the number of students enrolled. Although public school district consolidation has impacted districts of all sizes, since the late 1930’s smaller rural districts facing dwindling community resources have merged or consolidated with each other, resulting in fewer school districts. When school districts consolidate, all aspects of the newly-formed district are affected. Each year, lawmakers and rural public school district officials face dwindling finances, and each year these decision makers question whether to consolidate to avoid fiscal perils. Proponents tout the benefits of fiscal efficiency, a broadened curriculum, and a projected increase in student achievement. Critics argue that the community suffers when the community school closes, students are burdened with new transportation issues, increased academic opportunities do not necessarily impute to greater student performance, and a host of tangible and non-tangible arguments are put forth. This ex post facto quantitative study examines the fiscal efficiency of small, rural, consolidated school districts by comparing per-pupil expenditures with matched non-consolidated school districts in the state of Texas. The study also examines student achievement levels by comparing passing rate percentages on all Texas state assessment tests for 3rd, 5th, and 8th grade students attending these schools. For before and after consolidation comparison purposes, rural community public schools were matched according to Texas state designated “paired” protocol. Districts meeting Texas Education Agency (TEA) Snapshot criterion for Absorbing districts were matched with Joining districts. Expenditure and student achievement data for Absorbing and Joining districts were collected for the ten-year period from 1999 to 2009. A paired samples t-test measured differences in the district’s efficiency, and the Lawshe-Baker Normative t-test measured differences in student achievement. Four null hypotheses were examined with an a priori alpha level = 0.05. This study, when the data for the joining and absorbing districts was subjected to appropriate t-tests, supports other research that suggests per-pupil expenditures increased and student achievement decreased for the absorbing district. Keywords: per-pupil expenditures, student achievement, joining and absorbing districts

Frictions in Polycentric Administration with Non-Congruent Borders: Evidence from Ohio School District Class Sizes

Public managers who operate within cross-jurisdictional governance regimes face substantial difficulties in facilitating network collaboration. Scholars have long suggested that non-congruence of geographic borders can create coordination problems among the political communities within polycentric administrative units. A frequently reoccurring example of such coordination problems arises in cases where municipalities and school districts have non-congruent borders, creating fiscal externalities in residential development land use decisions. Using GIS data from 611 Ohio school districts and 1,585 municipalities in 2000, we calculate the degree of non-congruence between school district and municipal territory to test for evidence that non-congruence of municipal-school district borders influences school district class size. The results indicate that schools with non-congruent borders do experience substantively larger class sizes. Furthermore, these effects seem to increase with the degree of non-congruence. Our findings are robust to model specification and consistent across OLS and treatment effects regression estimates. Policy implications for state-encouraged consolidation of school districts are discussed as well as theoretical and empirical implications of non-congruent jurisdictional borders for governance studies more generally.

School District Reorganization in Maine: Lessons Learned for Policy and Process

In 2007, Maine’s legislature enacted a law mandating school district consolidation with the goal of reducing the state’s 290 districts to approximately 80. Five years later the success of this policy is open to debate. Janet Fairman and Christine Donis-Keller examine what worked and what didn’t work in this effort to consolidate school districts and provide a list of “lessons learned,” with clear implications for the design and implementation of state educational policy.

Does School District Consolidation Cut Costs?

Over the last 50 years, consolidation has dramatically reduced the number of school districts in the United States, and state governments still recommend consolidation, especially in rural school districts, as a way to improve school district efficiency. However, state policies encouraging consolidation are often challenged on the grounds that they do not lead to cost savings and instead foster learning environments that harm student performance. Existing evidence on this topic comes largely from educational cost functions, which indicate that instructional and administrative costs are far lower in a district with 3,000 pupils than in a district with 100 pupils. However, research on the cost consequences of consolidation itself is virtually nonexistent. This paper fills this gap by evaluating the cost impacts of consolidation in rural school districts in New York over the 1985 to 1997 period. Holding student performance constant, we find evidence that school district consolidation substantially lowers operating costs, particularly when small districts are combined. The operating cost savings ranges from 22 percent for two 300-pupil districts to 8 percent for two 1,500-pupil districts. In contrast, consolidation lowers capital costs only for relatively small districts, and capital costs increase substantially when two 1,500-pupil districts come together. Overall, consolidation is likely to lower the costs of two 300-pupil districts by over 20 percent, to lower the costs of two 900-pupil districts by 7 to 9 percent, and to have little, if any, impact on the costs of two 1,500-pupil districts. State aid to cover the adjustment costs of consolidation appears to be warranted, but only in relatively small districts.

The Atlee School Question: The Effects Of School Consolidation In Rural Alberta

In the mid-1960s, a bitter dispute broke out between parents in the Atlee-Jenner School District in Southern Alberta Canada, and the Medicine Hat School Board over the bussing of children for the first time to a new school a long distance away. The move was precipitated by the consolidation of several smaller school districts and the subsequent closing of the local school. The parents’ argument was that the road by which the bus was to travel was in an unfinished state and was dangerous. However, the conflict is illustrative of a much deeper issue. An argument might be made that this dispute illuminated a much larger crisis in rural life on the prairies. It may represent, as a case study, the problems and difficulties involved in a shift from rural life, with its unique sorts of interpersonal relationships built on the strength of local community and co-operative spirit, to a much more urbanized and structured existence. As the Great Depression had shown, the myth that you could always go back to the farm for some measure of economic security had been dispelled. However, one’s control over the education of one’s children, and thus the inculcation of appropriate values and beliefs, after having been first of all, institutionalized with universal public schooling (both Protestant and Roman Catholic), had been, at least up to this point, largely a local concern, under a central authority (Ministry of Education). School divisions on the prairies had been relatively small and numerous, for practical reasons, such as transport and regular attendance. Gradually, these small divisions came to be replaced by larger administrative units, thus threatening the perceived control and familiarity of local communities. The other half of the equation in this dispute was the reaction of the Deputy Minister at the time, W.H. Swift. Swift could empathize with the basic issues in play, having strong rural roots himself. Deputy Minister of Education, W.H. Swift was also one of the last to hold that position rising up through the ranks of the education system, from teacher to school inspector to academic. Swift had earned a Ph.D. at an early age, and rose quickly through the ranks of the civil service, learning his job under the tutelage of G. F. McNally. Swift and McNally represented a tradition in the Department, having earned their positions through experience and hard work. As such, they might be viewed as self-made moral exemplars, leaders who could be viewed as role models by the rank and file. This article seeks not only to illustrate how Swift actually functioned in his role as Deputy Minister in times of crisis and high public visibility, but also to show how he reacted when confronted with moral decisions. The Atlee case, taking place between the years 1955 and 1965, serves as an example of the controversy which had developed in many areas as small rural schools were closed as a result of the divisional amalgamations begun by the Social Credit Government before the Second World War. On a wider scale the issues embodied in the dispute also reflect a changing rural landscape. Just as the small family farm was under corporate pressure, so it was with the local school. These economic and administrative transformations brought with them social and cultural changes as well. Although the case was one of the last examples of this kind, it was certainly one of the most bitterly contested.

Examining Economies of Scale in School Consolidation: Assessment of Indiana School Districts

This article examines the potential for reducing costs through school district consolidation by employing economies of scale. Utilizing Indiana school district data primarily from 2004 through 2006, we find evidence for scale economies with optimal enrollment being 1,942 students, with a per pupil estimated cost at $9,414. The 95% confidence interval of the optimal enrollment is 1,300 to 2,903 students. The study examines several hypotheses discussed in this line of literature. Transportation does not appear to hold significant scale economies potential, while salary data provides mixed results. Finally, attendance is shown to be negatively influenced by school district enrollment levels, with the impact of attendance on student performance being examined in a subsequent study.

A spatial merger estimator with an application to school district consolidation

This paper develops a spatial merger estimator to explain political integration generally and then applies this method to a wave of school district mergers in the state of Iowa during the 1990s. Our estimator is rooted in the economics of matching and thus accounts for three important features of typical merger protocol: two-sided decision making, multiple potential partners, and spatial interdependence. Rather than simply explaining when a particular region is likely to experience a wave of political integration, our method allows us to explore the factors driving which specific subregional mergers take place. This allows us to explore how those districts that merge choose with which of their neighbors to do so. Our results highlight the importance of state financial incentives for consolidation, economies of scale, diseconomies of scale, and a variety of heterogeneity measures in this particular application. We also demonstrate the power of our estimator, relative to existing estimators, to detect a statistically significant role for heterogeneity factors. While our application is limited to school district consolidation, our method can be adapted to include the salient features of many spatial integration problems.