Slash school district bureaucracy

The Detroit News is highlighting ideas from various groups to promote discussion on reform, restructuring government and the economy.

Slash school district bureaucracy

Idea 22: Save tax dollars and drive more money into the classroom for students and teachers by reducing excessive administrative overhead in K-12 education.

Why: Michigan is burdened with a top-heavy and obsolete education establishment, according to the nonpartisan House Fiscal Agency, based on 552 local school districts and 57 intermediate school districts.

Benefits: The House Fiscal Agency reports that the recently approved state School Aid budget appropriates $12.877 billion for 2009-10. A conservative estimate is that 10 percent (or $1.28 billion) of the school aid goes for administrative overhead. A 10 percent reduction in the excessive administrative overhead that comes with 552 separate school districts would save $128 million annually.

How: Pass legislation (patterned after the federal military base closing commission) to establish a School District Streamlining Commission that would conduct public hearings and recommend to the Legislature a 50 percent reduction in the number of school districts from 552 to 276. The recommendation could not be amended and would automatically take effect unless rejected by both houses of the Legislature. Or pass legislation (based on a concept by state Superintendent of Public Instruction Mike Flanagan) that would limit the role of the 552 school districts solely to academic purposes and require the immediate transfer and consolidation of all noninstructional responsibilities to the 57 intermediate school districts.

Obstacles: School bureaucrats and others in the education establishment who directly benefit from the overlap and duplication that riddles the system. They make false arguments about local control and the need to maintain local identity (Translation: Protect government employee union membership).

Source: Michigan Chamber of Commerce