Declining enrollment study almost done
by Todd Engdahl on Mar 10th, 2010
The board received an early peek at a comprehensive study of the effects of declining enrollment on school districts.
The study was requested by the legislature in 2008 but was delayed a year because of budget cuts. It’s due to be publicly released next Monday. The study was done by Pacey Economics Group of Boulder, whose president, Patricia Pacey, also happens to be a member of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
Although there’s been modest statewide student growth over the past several years, most of Colorado’s 178 school districts actually are declining. The issue is important to districts because state aid to schools is based on enrollment, so there are budget impacts for declining districts. (Current law allows districts to average declines over several years.)
Calling the study “an enormous undertaking” that involved analysis of six years’ worth of enrollment, teacher statistics, spending, revenues and CSAP scores, Pacey gave the board some highlights of the study, including: Overall student performance doesn’t seem to vary by district size or location. Because of fixed costs, school districts have little financial flexibility in responding to declining enrollment and aid.
The percentages of budget that districts spend on various items such as instruction or transportation varies little between large and small and urban/suburban and rural districts.
“School choice costs money,” meaning that both district and Charter School Institute Schools affect the finances of districts.
School district consolidation wouldn’t yield significant savings if done on an across-the-board or formula basis although it might be useful for some districts, depending on local circumstances.
Pacey said her researchers didn’t independently study the issue of “adequacy” – how much money is needed for an effective education system – but that the study does contain a summary of other adequacy research.
She did note that that other research indicates Colorado school spending has fallen 20 percent behind inflation since 2002.
http://www.ednewscolorado.org/2010/03/10/state-school-repair-cost-staggering/#decline
