By Jonathan Butcher
As a new school year begins, students return to the classroom and see old friends, meet their new teachers, and begin the class routine. This fall, some lawmakers are returning to something that’s become a routine, too: talking about school district unification and consolidation.
Arizona has been down this road before and gotten nowhere. Unification/consolidation advocates suggest that these measures could cut overhead by combining administrative positions—both worthy goals for lean budget times. And perhaps on a case-by-case basis, consolidation measures could do so, but unification is complicated, with high up-front costs and limited long-term savings.
Research from Michigan, Maine, and Indiana suggests that unification does not lead to the hoped-for savings and administrative efficiencies. In fact, unification may actually inhibit school and district leaders from becoming more efficient.
When unification surfaced previously in Arizona, Goldwater Institute research found there would likely be minimal savings. But, there are proven ways to save the state money and improve student learning. Expanding Arizona’s school choice programs like charter schools, which spend less money per student than traditional schools, could accomplish both.
Some of the most innovative and highest performing schools in the country are charter schools right here in Arizona, like Carpe Diem in Yuma and the BASIS schools. All students should have access to quality options like these.
Arizona lawmakers could help successful charters replicate by allowing them better access to facilities, something many charter schools struggle with because they have to come up with the funds to finance buildings themselves. Indiana found a way to do this by keeping an up-to-date list of vacant public school buildings and offering interested charter schools a $1 annual lease.
Unification is a tired idea rife with complications. Instead, let’s focus on what is already working in Arizona and give more students access to successful schools.
Jonathan Butcher is education director for the Goldwater Institute.
Learn More:
Goldwater Institute: Competition or Consolidation? The School District Consolidation Debate Revisited
Center for Evaluation and Education Policy: Revisiting School District Consolidation Issues
Mackinac Center for Public Policy: School District Consolidation, Size, and Spending: an Evaluation
Cronkite News: Legislative committee begins study of combining school districts
Jonathan Butcher serves as Education Director for the Goldwater Institute. He has researched education policy and school choice programs at the state and national levels. Jonathan has many media appearances to his credit, and his commentary appears in newspapers around the country and on FoxNews.com and National Review Online. He holds a B.A. in English from Furman University and an MA in economics from the University of Arkansas. 
