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Timothy Collins, IIRA Assistant Director
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"No Forced Consolidation" Says Lt. Governor's "Improving Education" Report

May 17, 2012

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Rural Illinois Perspectives

by Timothy Collins, Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs Assistant Director

MACOMB, IL -- A recent preliminary report from Lieutenant Governor Sheila Simon's Classrooms First Commission recommends that Illinois not force school consolidation. The recommendations allow for school consolidation, but suggest various alternatives, including resource sharing.

The commission was charged with addressing school funding in the wake of the state's fiscal crisis. The recommendations came after months of research and discussion, with public hearings statewide about ways to deal with more efficient financing of the state's 860 school districts, one of the highest numbers of districts in the country.

Unlike other states, the commission did not advocate requiring district mergers to save money, principally because, according to the commission, consolidation is an expensive process.

"Because of the large number of districts and their disparities in structure, size and resources, mandatory consolidation has been proposed several times in Illinois in recent decades," the report states. "However, research shows that this approach is not likely to produce the large cost savings anticipated by proponents. Up-front costs are prohibitive in any mass consolidation scenario, including costs to merge faculty and staff, unify curriculum, modify facilities and schedules, reconfigure transportation, standardize textbooks and teaching materials and consolidate back office operations."

Originally called the School District Realignment and Consolidation Commission by the Illinois General Assembly, the panel focused on student learning and operational efficiency. According to the report, commissioners adopted two key goals: improving educational opportunity and improving efficient use of educational resources.

Commissioners identified where barriers to realignment could be removed, allowing districts in which consolidation makes sense to voluntarily realign. Based on its research, the commission also focused on two other key strategies: promoting "virtual consolidation" through shared educational and operational services, as well as providing districts with tools to increase their efficiencies and educational opportunities.

According to a press release, draft recommendations to promote voluntary consolidation at little or no new cost to the state include:

  • allowing compact but not contiguous districts to consolidate; currently districts must be compact and contiguous;
  • expanding the regional board of school trustees' dissolution authority by allowing local districts with enrollment less than 750 to seek dissolution with or without a referendum; currently this is an option for districts serving communities with less than 5,000 people;
  • piloting a new capital project list that targets school construction money at districts willing to consolidate and that need new buildings, additions and/or building renovations;
  • phasing in lower local tax rates for new unit districts; currently, elementary and high school districts become a lower, unit taxing district immediately after consolidating;
  • requiring counties with small and declining school-age populations to conduct studies to consider shared services, district mergers or even county-wide districts; 12 counties currently have county-wide districts, and 16 counties have small and declining student populations, according to state and federal population projections through 2030.

According to a 2010 article in the Journal of Research in Rural Education, consolidation has been implemented in states as diverse as New York, Iowa, Louisiana, West Virginia, Montana, Kentucky and Arkansas.

The commission began its work in September 2011. The 57-page report can be found at www2.illinois.gov/ltgov/Pages/ImprovingEducation.aspx.

For more information, contact Timothy Collins at (800) 526-9943 or via email at T-Collins@wiu.edu.

Western Illinois University is an Affirmative Action, Equal Opportunity institution. For more information about the Illinois Institute for Rural Affairs, see www.iira.org.

Posted By: University Communications (U-Communications@wiu.edu)
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