A
National Education Policy Center study Consolidation of Schools and Districts: What the Research Says and What
It Means, by Craig Howley, Jerry Johnson, and Jennifer Petrie
http://nepc.colorado.edu/publication/consolidation-schools-districts
which is summarized in Research Raises Doubts About Benefits of Consolidation http://www.ruraledu.org/articles.php?id=2644
shows “policies that promote school consolidation are likely to do more harm than good…”
Notice
the part that states:
In short, “state-level consolidation proposals appear to serve a public relations purpose in times
of fiscal crisis, rather than substantive fiscal or educational purposes.”
Not Enough Says emphatically agrees with that in regards to state Rep. Tim Mahoney’s three-year plan to attempt
to consolidate six (or eight) local public school districts into a countywide single school district. Rep. Mahoney has
claimed savings over the years from consolidation before a local study was even started. Rep. Mahoney obtained a $100,000
DCED grant and recently during an interview known as the Hot Seat Interview with the Herald-Standard executive editor, he
said “and another $20,000 for the PR of it.”
Rep. Mahoney has stated he wants to “change the way we
do education in Pennsylvania.” He continues to cite other states county-based school district consolidation, yet
he never shows a single study that supports such for Pennsylvania as the way to go to obtain dramatic savings he’s touted
for several years.
