The Joint Finance Committee met the other day to discuss Delaware’s Department of Education budget, the Delaware State News reported. Sadly, even though Delaware spends over $1 billion dollars on education, it doesn’t seem like much happened. They did talk about raising starting teacher salaries, but kind of nixed the idea on consolidating Delaware’s school districts.
Budget-writing lawmakers broached the possibility of consolidating some of the state’s 19 school districts Wednesday, but top education officials said it wouldn’t save much money.
[snip]
Several lawmakers questioned the notion that fewer school districts would largely result in the same expenses, a conclusion reached in a past study.
The internet is full of studies about consolidating school districts in Delaware:
- 2009 article: State auditor recommends consolidating state’s school districts (link)
- 2004 study: Delaware School District Organization & Boundaries: Closing the Gap (link)
- 2002 study: Feasibility Study for County Wide School Districts In
Kent and Sussex Counties (link) - 2016 Article: Officials to eye merging state’s school districts (link)
Obviously, my google skills are deteriorating, so if anyone else can find recent studies that would be helpful. That all said, a consolidation of Delaware school districts would immediately save on superintendent salaries. We would also probably have to keep some of the assistant superintendents, but other staff cuts could probably be made in central offices. Firing people is a big deal, I get that, but it might be time to take advantage of Delaware’s size and have only three school districts.
Other unknown benefits could include getting rid of Delaware’s inane education referendums as part of a consolidation.