In Utah there are 47 school districts for 570,000 students. In Maryland there are 24 districts for 865,000 students. In Nevada there are 18 school districts for 435,000 students.
West Virginia has 55 school districts for 250,000 students – divided along the lines of 55 counties.
This type of districting is inefficient and wastes taxpayer dollars without benefiting students or teachers. There are too many school districts in a state this small, and it causes too much money to be spent on administration. Larger school districts would save West Virginians money and allow more resources to be dedicated to classrooms.
Each school district in this state has a central office, central staff, and central services that it must provide, which adds up to over $100 million spent on administration by county boards of education. This represents about 6% of all state aid. West Virginia could save millions of dollars and enhance efficiency by consolidating school districts, while increasing the resources available for educators and students.
West Virginia spends too much money on administration, and it can be seen in the increasing administrator to pupil ratio since the 1990s. Consolidating into larger school districts can reduce the overhead administration costs and allow more resources to get to the students without reducing the number of schools or teachers.
Despite a 14% drop in enrollment since 1995, West Virginia schools have only had a 4% drop in staffing. Taking a closer look at the data reveals that this staffing surge is not because the state has more teachers but because there are more administrators.
Staffing growth by full-time teachers outpaces enrollment growth by 4%, while non-teacher staffing outpaces enrollment growth by 18%. When more money is spent on administration, less is spent on instruction. If the student to staff ratio had remained constant since 1995, there would have been enough savings to increase teacher salaries by an average of $10,000 or more.
West Virginia is not a big enough state to justify having 55 separate school districts. The district sizes range from less than 800 students to nearly 24,000. Why is Kanawha County treated the same as Gilmer County? Gilmer County spends nearly $800 per student on administration and central services, whereas Kanawha spends closer to $380 per student, despite being held to the same state standards.
Here in West Virginia, the two largest school districts, Kanawha and Berkeley, are also the most efficient and operate well below the $417 average administrative and central service cost per student, proving that larger districts can save on administrative costs.
If the state were to be split into 12 districts that mimic the size of Kanawha and Berkeley counties, approximately 21,000 students, less money would need to be spent on overhead costs, more resources could be shared, and other counties could enjoy the same efficiencies as Berkeley and Kanawha.
Larger districts allow resources to be more effectively shared across county lines, including everything from buses to support personnel to substitute teachers. This type of consolidation would free up at least $10 million more annually to be used on teacher salaries, classroom materials, or other educational expenses without affecting the community or eliminating any essential functions of a school district.
One of the biggest misconceptions about district consolidation is that it negatively affects the local community.
School district consolidation would not change the everyday life of any parent, student or teacher. District consolidation merely merges the administration of multiple county boards. It does not reduce the number of schools or teachers. Instead, it answers the parents’ and teachers’ pleas for more money to be spent on classrooms without costing taxpayers more.
Utah, Maryland, and Nevada prove that schools can be effectively run with larger school districts but so does West Virginia. There is no reason that the efficiencies of larger districts should be limited to the larger counties.
By reducing the number of school districts, less money is spent on superintendents and central offices, and more money can be spent on instruction in the classroom.
