School Consolidation

Why the Size of Our Schools (and Our Community) Matters
by Todd Ream, Guest Op-Ed Columnist
Communities such as Greentown share a special relationship with their schools.  Over the years students all get to know each other even across those arbitrary social lines that form during the teenage years.  Teachers afford us with a substantive version of what it means to be celebrities, providing wisdom and guidance to our children beyond matters of reading and arithmetic.  We cheer on the sports teams and are inspired by the concerts.  In the end, the relationship shared by our schools and our community is special because the size of both demands that everyone has a need and a place to invest.

Not everyone, however, believes that the size of our schools and the kinds of relationships they develop with their communities is enough to justify five school corporations in Howard County.  In fact, John Floyd, retired Chrysler employee and current columnist for The Kokomo Perspective, used his leverage to convince his fellow members of the Citizens Consolidation Committee to conduct the first of their five public forums on the topic of school consolidation. This first session is scheduled for Wednesday, August 3, 2011, in IU Kokomo’s Havens Auditorium, 7 to 9 p.m.  The underlying logic
John has offered is that the consolidation of the administrative structures that coordinate the education of our children would save money.  Unfortunately, his logic is based on nothing beyond anecdotes thus propelling him to make three critical mistakes. 

First, school consolidation does not save money.  In fact, data collected on both statewide and national levels indicates smaller school corporations such as Eastern are more cost efficient than larger school corporations.  One of the many ways to shed light on this fact is to look at the amount of money each school corporation spends on average to educate a child.  For example, in data reported to the Indiana Department of Education (2009), Eastern spent an average of $9,700.00.  In comparison, Kokomo-Center spent $12,900 and Indianapolis spent $14,000.

Second, school consolidation yields decreases in student performance.  For example, reported ISTEP scores indicate that Kokomo-Center was the lowest performing district over the most recent 10-year period.  In addition, Kokomo-Center was the only district in the county to consistently generate scores below the state average in math and English language arts across all tested grades. 
Such trends also hold true when we look at both statewide and national data sets.  In the summer of 2007, the Center for Evaluation and Education Policy at IU Bloomington even released a policy brief arguing “student achievement in small schools is at least equal, perhaps even superior, to the student achievement demonstrated in large schools.”  Foundations such as the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation have spent millions of dollars over the course of the last decade to try and help some of our nation’s largest school corporations and schools develop what are being called small learning communities. 
Third, conversations concerning school consolidation are beyond the purview of the Citizens Consolidation Committee.   Isabella Chism, President of the Citizens Consolidation Committee even conceded this point when asked but then went on to offer that school consolidation was of considerable interest to certain members of the committee. 

Beyond the simple facts that school consolidation would increase costs and decrease student performance, part of what we should be thinking about as citizens of Greentown is do we want officials who are part of a large bureaucracy based over in Kokomo to make decisions on behalf of our children?  Or, do we want those decisions being made by our friends and neighbors here in Greentown?  
While school consolidation would increase costs and decrease student performance, it would likely also yield a decrease in the level of investment and thus pride we take all take in Eastern.  In the coming weeks and months, we may all need to be prepared to raise our voices and say that the size of our schools and the size of our community matters.  Both the education of our children and the health of our community may hang in the balance.