Why do small towns oppose consolidating school districts?

[snickerd3]

Growing up in suburbia where school districts covered multiple towns (6+) I guess I don't understand the small town opposition to consolidating school districts. You keep your schools, it us just the admin folks that are consolidated and every town gets a say in what goes on with the school board so I don't see this issue. it really is a cost saving endeavor.

 

[engineergurl]

it would impact the tax rates... if they had merged us with the larger school near by the farmers from our school would have had to pay a high property tax on more land...is what I vaguely remember the argument being anyway...

 

[willsee]

They did this in Paducah, KY recently and it was a huge uproar.

Most didn't trust the school board, liked their small high school that their grandpapa's attended in the 50's, didn't like traveling as far to school, etc.

McCracken County High School was the new consolidated high school that was built apparently against the wishes of most parents.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

Yeah, taxes are a pretty big issue.

And a lot of times, the goals of the merging districts are different.

 

[snickerd3]

I'm not talking consolidating schools. I am talking consolidating districts. Each town had its own elementary schools, middle schools and most had their own highschools so there wasn't a whole lot of traveling.

 

[engineergurl]

plus we had better sports teams, better buildings, better standardized testing results... if they had sent us to the larger school we would have had more kids in the class room, lost out on a lot of extra curricular activities and probably gotten an inferior education

 

[Dexman PE PMP]

We want the government to save money, but will strongly oppose any measure that will actually do it.

 

[Road Guy]

And mostly once you have political "leaders" they don't give that system up easily...

Even when a city/county government unify they normally keep all the elected officials so you just get more BS...

 

[Capt Worley PE]

And mostly once you have political "leaders" they don't give that system up easily...

Even when a city/county government unify they normally keep all the elected officials so you just get more BS...

They generally keep all the personnel and facilities as well, so cost savings are minimal.

Usually when school districts merge, the quality level sinks to that of the lower quality district, and the tax rate rises to that of the more expensive. It sounds nice on paper, but doesn't work well in practice.

 

[envirotex]

And mostly once you have political "leaders" they don't give that system up easily...

Even when a city/county government unify they normally keep all the elected officials so you just get more BS...

^^^Plus, the school boards get consolidated and someone has to lose power in their fiefdom.

 

[csb]

Our county has two school districts. #1 covers the main town of 60,000. #2 handles the rest of the county, with the other towns having a couple thousand people. "They do things differently" is the reason we have separate districts. I think the size differences are huge and would cause the smaller schools heartburn over being ignored. They are much more lenient about things in #2.

 

[Capt Worley PE]

And mostly once you have political "leaders" they don't give that system up easily...

Even when a city/county government unify they normally keep all the elected officials so you just get more BS...

^^^Plus, the school boards get consolidated and someone has to lose power in their fiefdom.

usually that isn't the case. Not here.