Study supports consolidation No ties seen in school size, success

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ORONO – A recent study has determined that the size of Maine’s school districts plays a marginal role in student achievement and that dramatic cost savings could be realized by school consolidation.

The findings of the study, conducted by the Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center at the University of Maine, were released last week.

The study found there is no correlation between the size of a school district and how well it does academically, based on student test scores, the number of graduates who attend college and the number of dropouts.

The report also found that “huge potential cost savings” could be achieved by consolidation, especially of administrative duties.

The report stated that many of the state’s school districts are “too small” to achieve cost efficiency and that there is “unnecessary duplication of educational infrastructure” across the state.

“Improving Educational Resource Allocation in Maine: A Study of School District Size” was written by Philip Trostel, associate professor of economics, and Catherine Reilly, his research assistant.

Its findings were based on school and student performance data provided by the Maine Department of Education. The study examined five school years of data – 1998-99 through 2002-03 – in reaching its findings.

The report concluded “there is considerable merit to the idea of greater consolidation of K-12 schools” and “there is essentially no relationship between school district size and educational outcomes in Maine.”

The Margaret Chase Smith Policy Center was established in 1989 as a nonpartisan, independent research and public service unit of the University of Maine. The Davis Family Foundation and the university’s Regular Faculty Research Fund provided funding for the study.

The report noted that demographic changes leading to shrinking enrollments and growing budget deficits have prompted calls for consolidation. Forecasts indicate that already-small rural schools and rural school districts will become even smaller in the future.

The study suggests that without reconstruction, the fixed costs of education will be spread over fewer students and add to the growing tax burden on an aging population.

Gov. John Baldacci has identified school consolidation and regionalization as one of his top priorities and last year formed a task force to investigate the issue.

Supporters claim that consolidation is the only method available for stretching education dollars. Opponents have argued that consolidation is detrimental to students and removes local control from rural communities.

Rep. Stephen Bowen, R-Rockport, an eighth-grade social studies teacher who served on the governor’s school regionalization task force, said he doubted there was a lot of money to be saved by consolidating school districts. He said many districts already cooperate by making bulk purchases together.

Bowen said focusing on consolidation to reduce the cost of education avoids addressing the real causes of escalating school budgets, such as high insurance and labor costs, and federal and state mandates.

Trostel’s report states that the concept for consolidation in public education is economies in scale – the principle that it is more cost-efficient to make larger quantities rather than smaller.

Proponents believe the state’s public education resources are organized on a scale that is too small to reach efficiency in either performance or cost.

Opponents believe that increasing the scale of education would move away from efficient levels.

Compared to the rest of the country, most of Maine’s schools are small. In 2000-01, the average school in Maine had 290 students. The national average was 506, almost 75 percent larger. Maine ranked 43rd among the 50 states in the number of students per school.

Maine’s school districts are even smaller in comparison to the rest of the nation. There were 734 students per school district in Maine in 2000-01, compared to the national average of 3,177 students. Maine ranked 45th in the number of students per school district.

Meanwhile, state estimates indicate school enrollments will shrink by more than 12 percent within the next 10 years.

The report also found that the state’s education system is “somewhat costly” when compared to the rest of the country. Operating costs per student in Maine are more than 11 percent higher than the national average.

Despite having an average teacher salary that is 13th lowest nationwide, Maine has the 11th most expensive public education system in the country in terms of cost per student, according to the report.

According to Trostel, Maine has one full-time employee for each 6.2 students, a figure 33 percent greater than the rest of the country. The report estimates that Maine spends about $270 million a year more than needed to operate its schools.

“The in-depth analysis of costs and school districts confirms that there are substantial unrealized economies of scale in Maine’s public school districts,” the report concluded.

“There is considerable duplication of spending on administration and facilities that would not exist if education were organized on a larger scale in some areas. Furthermore, the larger districts would not decrease the quality of students’ education.”

The report is available online at www.umaine.edu/mcsc.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.