Consolidation Update

I posted a few weeks back about Governor Rendell's message about school consolidation. Today there is an article in the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette tackling both the consolidation plan and the graduate competency assessments.

From the Post-Gazette:

Pa. official grilled on graduation exam, school mergers

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

By Tom Barnes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

HARRISBURG -- State Education Secretary Gerald Zahorchak ran into a bipartisan buzzsaw today before the Senate Appropriations Committee, as he was assailed for trying to reduce the state's 501 school districts to just 100 and for pushing to develop a new high school graduation test.

Democratic Sens. Sean Logan of Monroeville and Andrew Dinniman of Chester questioned Gov. Ed Rendell's controversial idea of consolidating school districts.

Mr. Logan said it had been tough enough just to close Duquesne High School and transfer those 135 students to nearby high schools.

"How are we going to deal with transferring millions of students if the districts are reduced to 100?'' he said.

Mr. Dinniman asked where the number of 100 came from.

Mr. Zahorchak, who is Mr. Rendell's point man on several emotional education issues, said some people had talked about having just one school district per county, and there are 67 counties. Larger counties, such as Allegheny, would probably need several school districts, so the figure of 100 came up, he said.

Mr. Zahorchak said the upcoming merger of Monaca and Center districts in Beaver County could provide a blueprint for other combinations.

The school district consolidation idea did get some support from Sen. John Wozniak, D-Cambria, who said a study by a legislative committee a couple years ago supported the idea and said that about 2,500 students was a good number for each district

Mr. Rendell wants the Legislature to set up a committee to study the consolidation idea and settle on a different, lower number of districts if it chooses.

Mr. Zahorchak also took flak from Sen. Jane Orie, R-McCandless, over his plan to create new "Graduation Competency Assessment'' exams that all high school students would have to pass in order to graduate. He said that too many students are now getting diplomas while still being unprepared academically for college or the work force.

He said that if a local school district wanted to develop its own assessment exam that was just as rigorous as the one the state is developing, it could use the local exam.

But Ms. Orie didn't like either idea, saying it could ultimately cost the state up to $45 million to develop the tests. She said it's an unnecessary expense when the state is facing a $2.3 billion budget deficit.

Perhaps the most poignant protest at the budget hearing -- even if it was silent -- was the appearance by 25 students from the Scranton School for the Deaf, who don't like the Rendell/Zahorchak plan to save $7 million by closing their school. It serves 100 deaf students and has 100 staff members.

Mr. Zahorchak said it's the only school in the state that is directly run by state government, and he thinks it's time for the state to stop such direct education. The students might be served by an intermediate unit in the Scranton area or even with programs from the Western Pennsylvania School for the Deaf, he said.

An interpreter, using sign language, told the students what was being said at the hearing. Sen. Lisa Baker, R-Luzerne, strongly protested the Rendell administration's plans to close the school.

It looks like there is bi-partisan opposition to the consolidation plan at this time. Even if the Governor gets a study going it will be a few years before we might know something more.

Kudos to State Senator Jane Orie for using the opportunity to talk about some budget ramifications of the GCAs.

Thanks for reading.

James

Upper Lebanon Park School District?

Even though there is a long ways to go to get anything like a consolidated school district that would be renamed something like the title of this post suggests, its important to put this on your radar.

Governor Rendell's budget message released yesterday is very interesting. He addresses many things with regards to his education plans and his efforts to reduce costs in education and the resulting tax impacts on residents. One of his suggestions is to reduce the number of school districts in the state:

Almost everyone agrees that Pennsylvania has far too many school districts. This means there is an ever-increasing pressure to raise local property taxes. I propose to address this pressing issue in three ways: First, there is no question that the best way to relieve the pressure of local property taxes is to continue to demand accountability and grow state funding for public education. In the last six years, working together, we have made tremendous strides in this regard, committing more than $2.7 billion in additional state funding to our public schools. Prior to the market collapse, I had anticipated proposing an additional $418 million for our public schools in FY2009-2010, so that we could continue to achieve the goal of closing the "adequacy gap" in education funding set forth in the Costing-Out Study that was prepared for the General Assembly last year.

Governor Rendell then moves onto his plan to reduce health insurance costs to school districts across the state by consolidating health insurance for all school employees:

Secondly, last session, the House Education Committee passed terrific legislation which would consolidate health care benefits for all school employees in the state. I am a strong proponent of moving in this direction because this bill will save taxpayers hundreds of millions of dollars and dramatically slow the rise in annual health care costs. I urge the chambers to act quickly to pass a bill that accomplishes this goal.

In the final part of his proposal, Governor Rendell more fully addresses the possibility of school district consolidation:

Third, full-scale school consolidation provides a very effective way to relieve the local property tax burden all across Pennsylvania. There is nothing sacrosanct about the need to maintain 500 separate schools districts across the state -- each with its own staggering, and growing, administrative costs. In Maryland, for example, they have just 24 districts, all at the county level, and Maryland enjoys student achievement levels that are among the highest in the nation. And for the record, consolidation is not a new idea in Pennsylvania. Consider that in 1955, there were 2,700 separate school districts. At that point, the Legislature authorized consolidations statewide, and within two years the number of separate districts fell to 1,900. Five years later, in 1962, the number of separate school districts fell to 600, and as of July there will be 500 school districts statewide.

We just don't need that many school districts, and more importantly, in today's economy we cannot afford them. Let's be clear: We all agree that small schools are important, but reducing the number of districts doesn't automatically mean bigger schools. Fewer districts does mean that we can spread the local share of public education costs across a wider population, and that means reducing the pressure on local property taxes. For this reason, I am proposing in the FY2009-2010 budget that we establish funds for the creation of a legislative commission to study how best to right-size our local school districts. I ask that you charge this commission with the responsibility of reporting back, within one year, a set of recommendations for the Legislature's approval that sets forth an optimal number of local districts and a plan with specific timelines for adjusting our boundaries to meet the optimal size.

The meat of this plan really is in his conclusion statement where he says he wants to consolidate to no more than 100 school districts so that administrative costs are shared over a larger student population:

I challenge this commission to develop a plan that includes no more than 100 local districts statewide. We need to stop spending our taxpayers' funds on redundant administrative costs and put those funds in the classrooms where they truly belong. If we can succeed in right-sizing our school districts, we can generate a major new source of funding that will benefit our students and Pennsylvania taxpayers all across the Commonwealth.

This theme of consolidation is nothing new. He proposes consolidating health insurance and school districts today. However, it was only a few years ago when tax collectors were consolidated as well.

While this school consolidation is all very interesting, it is a long ways from being definite. I suspect there will be a number of individuals and groups that come out against the consolidation of school districts and that these groups will pressure local representatives in the state house and senate. If I hear any additional chatter I will update everyone.

What I find very interesting is that I see no talk of the Graduate Competency Assessments. If the Governor is so concerned about funding schools then I would suggest the GCA plan be taken off the table immediately.

Thanks for reading.

James