Delaware school district task force takes open-ended approach

Delaware is facing another challenging budget year. The rising costs of educating our children and providing Medicaid to residents who need it most have been pushing our expenditures higher and higher, forcing us to look at different ways to be even more efficient with state spending.

One area where Delawareans routinely point to as a way to reduce spending is to consolidate the number of school districts. Delaware, a state with 137,000 students in public and charter schools, has 19 school districts, serving as few as 1,200 students (Polytech School District) to 16,000 students (Red Clay Consolidated School District).

When you hear that information, coupled with the fact that Montgomery County (Md.) Public School District serves more students than all 19 Delaware districts, then it becomes easy to suggest that we consolidate our districts. And it is for these reasons that we are sponsoring legislation creating a task force to study this issue.

The proposed task force would include representatives from the Department of Education, legislators, school district superintendents, charter schools, Delaware State Education Association, Delaware Parent Teacher Association and vo-tech schools.

The group would be charged with:

• Examining issues and existing research related to the consolidation of school districts.
• Studying and making findings related to the financial feasibility and impact of school district consolidation.
• Studying implementation challenges associated with school district consolidation.
• Exploring incentives to encourage schools districts to consolidate or reorganize.

This is not a new issue in Delaware, and some previous discussions and studies have actually concluded that the savings would be negligible when all factors are considered, such as “leveling up” the salaries of teachers and district employees. Some Delawareans might be surprised to learn that teachers are not paid the same across all school districts. If districts were consolidated, it would be only fair to ensure that all educators in the new districts are paid the same for the same work and experience level.

A 2002 legislative study of consolidating the multitude of Kent and Sussex districts into countywide districts found that there would be a net cost increase in personnel because of this leveling-up of salaries. We don’t include this as a deterrent. In fact, previous studies might have been hampered by being specific about an outcome, such as countywide school districts.

At the same time, district consolidation could yield savings in the areas of transportation, information technology, security and food preparation.

That’s why our approach is open-ended: we don’t specify what the end result should be, other than determining how we can more efficiently spend taxpayer dollars while still providing a high-quality education to all Delaware students. That is our primary goal.

We believe a broader study of the situation will help determine if there are savings to be realized by consolidating districts. We feel it is vital to thoroughly and critically examine this issue from all angles, weigh the pros and cons and report back. If the analysis finds that we can reasonably reduce expenditures without impacting the service our schools provide, then we should take those steps.

Residents and legislators alike have voiced their beliefs that this should be explored, and we hope that by moving forward in a bipartisan fashion, we can answer these questions and then make the best decisions possible for all Delawareans. We look forward to updating you as this process progresses.

Rep. Earl Jaques, a Democrat, chairs the House Education Committee and represents the 27th District. Rep. Joe Miro, a Republican, is a retired schoolteacher and member of the House Education Committee and represents the 22nd District.