Abstract
Each state was implicated in school district consolidation in the last century. School merge calls for scheduling and assessment. Most consolidations made use of a plan, except a few who have followed-up by means of an assessment. This paper provides a history of consolidation in Ohio and is a follow-up study of the last school consolidation to seize place in Ohio.
It reports what the people involved have to say eight years after the consolidation. The results of this study are especially significant for trainers facing consolidation. The benefits of consolidation are greatest at the secondary level. The results of this paper is interest to state and local elected officials, to people in state education departments, and to public school administrators.
Introduction
School district consolidation is one of the most impressive transformation in education ascendancy and management in the United States in the twentieth century. Over 100,000 schoolsdistricts have been eliminated through consolidation since 1938, a drop of almost 90 percent . This trend continues throughout the state, mainly because consolidation is widely regarded as a way for school districts to cut costs.
This paper provides a new look at the potential cost consequences of consolidation. Using a exceptional team data set for rural school districts in Columbia, we ask whether consolidation direct to worthwhile cost savings, controlling for student presentation. This paper therefore complements recent research on the causes of consolidation.
Although the speed of school district consolidation has deliberately since the 1970s, some states motionless provide enticement to consolidate. Some other states encourage consolidation through their building or transportation aid formulas. In contrast, about one-third of states use operating aid formulas that compensate school districts for sparsely or small scale and thereby discourage consolidation.
Although scholars make not agree on the cost crash of consolidation, it is likely to remain on the education strategy agenda in many states, particularly when school districts are under stress to slash costs and elevate student routine school district reorganization efforts, despite its virtual silence on the question of size.” This paper begins with a discussion of the notion of economies of size and its link to school district consolidation. The second section provides a examination of the cost gathering text.
School district consolidation: Ohio
In my research I have selected the Ohio state government. Ohio state government is important to me since I have been born here and have attended Columbia city schools since elementary schools. The Ohio state government contains three branches elected by Ohio voters, the legislative branch which makes laws, and the executive branch that administers law and judicial branch that interprets and enforces laws. The legislative branch consists of the house representatives and the Senate, collectively called the general assembly. The senate is elected to a four year term with a time limit of 2 consecutive four-year terms.
The executive branch includes the governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general. Auditor of stated, secretary of state, treasurer of state, state board of education, the governor’s cabinet , and boards and commissions whose members are appointed by governor. The judiciary branch of Ohio comprises of Supreme Court of Ohio and lower bench that all perform judicial functions. There are several services that the state government of Ohio provides it including educationThe main issue the government is trying to deal with is the drive to merge school districts in Ohio.
This was after Ohio’s administrative overhead cost of operating school in Ohio and handed it to Columbia 45 percent higher the national average. There was then need to evaluate and fix the problem with schools in Ohio. One of the suggested recommendations was to consolidate school districts. If there is push for consolidation Columbia could be seen as a necessary expense. After ten years of existing school districts in Ohio, poor education, financial infrastructures are the reality now. With 611 school districts in Ohio, consolidation into county districts would reduce the number to 88 what would then cut off 523 officers and save taxpayers half a billion each year.
School district consolidation implies that one doesn’t necessarily consolidate or close schools. Many schools like Columbus district consolidation are near capacity and can’t take any more students from a nearby closing school resulting them to remain open to Columbus residents. In consolidating district schools, it is clear that the state is going to put aside a substantial amount of funds by doing away with administrative staff.
This way the government outlines a setup to allow the state to move into districts and take them over. This would result to standardized education system and we would finally have the Columbus school district that would be administered resulting to one way of reducing the costs and eliminate layer of bureaucracy.
On thirtieth October.2010, republican candidate John Kasich some days after, four state education leaders pioneered the republican hopeful for wanting to eliminate some district. Kasich denied having said to leaders in education on September that if elected, he would pare down Ohio’s 613 public schools to about 400.what he talked of was sharing of resources. Kasich the congressman said his inclination was towards school consolidation as a way to reduce state spending which is a contradiction of what he had said earlier.
Consolidation has been discussed before but is usually put off by individuals worried of losing their districts and being forced to integrate with urban systems. The issue has now become a last-minute election item (john in Columbus, 2010). The democrats are attaching the republican leader Kasich through the consolidation issue which they are against and are for district consolidation which will have no much harm to the rural districts.
References
By Great Britain: parliament: (2010) House of Lords: Select comities on communication.Britain.
John in Columbus (30-10-2010). Retrieved on 02-03-2011 from http://topics.cleveland.com/tag/congress/index.html
