Should Michigan force-feed a consolidation of school districts? Perhaps. After all, public schools are funded almost entirely with public money, and a large chunk of that comes through the political apparatus in Lansing. A new report from Michigan State University suggests that consolidation could save Michigan taxpayers a lot of money.

But should lawmakers proceed? The answer is complicated.

Consider, for example, the the introduction to the report (PDF) by MSU scholar Sharif M. Shakrani: “The study does not address the impact of consolidation on student achievement, graduation rates, student and staff mobility rates, or the attitudes and perception of students, parents and the community toward consolidation.”

Student achievement ought to be a pretty important consideration, don’t you think?

Generally, smaller schools tend to improve student performance. While consolidation focuses on districts, not schools, larger districts also tend to have larger schools.

Consolidating the state’s districts into one per county, while changing nothing else, removes the major component of market discipline that districts face today.

The ability to purchase a house in a large number of districts provides a safety valve, of sorts, to dissatisfied parents. It’s no substitute for true school choice, but it beats having one mega-district per county.

Consolidation might not be bad if it is enacted as part of a larger package of reforms that include something like the universal tuition tax credit favored by my friends at the Mackinac Center, enhanced funding for charter schools (which currently receive less money than district schools), and innovations within districts such as school-based-budgeting and a weighted student formula, which puts the emphasis on school leaders rather than central-district administrators.

Florida, which does have one district per county, has also enacted a number of other reforms that alleviate some of the dangers of consolidation. These include giving explicit grades to each district, enacting a strong virtual-school program, and letting taxpayers take a credit for donations they make to scholarship-granting organizations, which help students attend private schools.

School consolidation, if it’s the only reform enacted, might do more harm than good.

From The Detroit News:

http://apps.detnews.com/apps/blogs/watercooler/index.php?blogid=518