Below is a submission from a LYS Superintendent:
A few weeks ago I had a conversation with a candidate who is running for
the District 85 seat of the Texas House of Representatives. During our
conversation the candidate indicated he favored going to countywide school
systems in order to save money. I indicated I didn’t think countywide
school districts would save much money at all, and in addition had the
potential to cause harm. Whether you are for or against county school
districts, let’s cogitate on the issue.
The concept of countywide school systems is not alien, even in Texas.
Years ago, Texas had countywide school systems. A brief history can
be found at:
Interestingly, the TEA link says cities and towns wanted more control of
their schools, hence independent school districts were formed. It seems
that even as early as the 1880’s local control was of key interest for Texans,
and that was before we spent the past three decades relocating school authority
to Austin. Obviously, I think local control is a compelling reason NOT to
consolidate back to countywide schools. Consolidation of independent
districts into county districts results in large, centralized government versus
small, local government. Our country was founded on the latter, and the former,
arguably, is sucking the life out of Nation. Again, like Senator Hegar
has said, our state is drastically different from region to region.
But even within the same county, school districts often have vastly
different cultures and priorities. I know, people in favor of countywide
schools say the local communities can keep their schools, traditions, culture,
and priorities. Consolidators say they simply want to have one central
administration for all the local schools. But the superintendent of an
independent school district is the executive arm that maintains the culture and
priorities of the district in tandem with the locally elected board. Take away
the superintendent and the locally elected board and the ability to maintain a
community’s culture and priorities will be seriously impacted. Also, the
consolidators will not stop at simply consolidating central administration into
countywide administrations. Once the consolidators have taken the first
step, the second step will be easier. And the second step is the closing
of buildings and schools deemed not needed by the county administration.
With the central administration of the independent school districts
removed, local control is removed, and the culture and priorities of the
community will be supplanted by the needs of the larger collective. Let
me clear: consolidating into countywide school districts is step one; step two
is the consolidation of districts by the process of closing buildings.
Once the consolidators win round one, they will not stop.
The main argument for eliminating independent districts and forming
county districts is to save money. Personally I think the de-centralized
government argument allowing more local control is the best reason not to
consolidate into county-wide schools, but in order to give due diligence to the
finance argument, let’s explore it. There are five independent school
districts in my rural county. The county enrollment is about 8100
students and my best estimate is there are about 21 superintendents, assistant
superintendents, and directors in the county. Looking at a school
district like College Station ISD with about 10,000 students, I count about 28
people with the word “superintendent” or “director” in their titles. So,
should my county be consolidated into a countywide district with only one
superintendent, I suggest not a single dime would be saved. In fact, the
consolidation just may cost more money, unless you shut down the local school
buildings and bus kids to centralized locations (step 2, remember?). In
my county four “fat cat” superintendents would likely become deputy
superintendents, assistant superintendents, or directors for the larger
collective, and their salaries may very well all go up. Indeed the larger
collective will be significantly more complex, therefore the four displaced
superintendents may not be enough to fill all of the senior administrative jobs
needed, we may need to hire more. This idea is explored in the following
2011 publication:
These researchers suggested there are likely benefits to
de-consolidating school districts, especially very large ones.
In conclusion, I must say I am not strictly against school
consolidation. If two Texas school district’s duly elected boards decide
it is in the best interest of their children and communities to consolidate, I
think that’s great. I simply don’t think Austin should be making that
decision. The fact that few districts choose to consolidate tells me the
idea is not too popular with Texans. Also, Premont and North Forest both
fought like Spartans to keep their districts from being forcibly consolidated.
The idea of saving money can easily be discredited, both by logical
inspection and published research.
Truly I suspect the real intention of consolidators is to further their agenda
to end public education. Once we have countywide collective districts the
cultures and priorities of individual independent districts will begin to
deteriorate, with only the needs of the collective considered. Eventually
schools will close, communities will die, and the collective will be complete.
Once the consolidators have a collective that is no longer connected to
individual communities, there will be little opposition or outcry as the
consolidators continue with their true plan, which is to dismantle public
education and replace it with a system of charters and vouchers.
Again, if consolidation is what communities want, they are free to
choose that now, and when done forcibly, districts seem to fight it to the
bitter end. I tell you all, however, to be weary of the skullduggery of
those who attack the central administrations of local independent school
districts based upon the idea of “saving money”. Little to no money will
be saved, saving money is not their intention, and we all need to be aware of
the facts before rushing into consolidation. I am tired of passing bills
in order to find out what’s in them.
Mike Seabolt
Think. Work. Achieve.
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