Mission Creep: How Large School Districts Lose Sight of the Objective -- Student Learning

Mike Antonucci:

The growth of education bureaucracy constitutes what former Education Secretary William Bennett once called "the education ‘blob.’"

A 1998 study by the Alexis de Tocqueville Institution defines "the blob" as nearly 40 Washington-based organizations, with more than 3,000 employees and combined budgets of more than $700 million. They have inter-locking directors, share staffs that move between groups and in and out of the revolving door of government, and generally stand united on every major education issue.

But while this national education establishment is often the subject of critical commentary, left undiscussed is the growth of smaller "mini-blobs" at the local, district level. With class size reduction and school size reduction on the public’s mind, educators are coming to the realization that bigger is not always better – but school district size has not yet made it onto the education policy agenda.

In 1937, there were 119,001 school districts. By 1970, that number had dropped to 17,995. In 1996, there were only 14,841. For decades, Americans have accepted the premise that a large city requires one mammoth school district. But evidence suggests that the larger a school district gets, the more resources it devotes to secondary or even non-essential activities. Schools provide transportation, counseling, meals, child care, health services, security, and soon these "support" functions require support of their own.

In sum, large school districts engage in "mission creep," building support activities which rapidly lose any connection to the original goal of educating children.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at June 5, 2007 6:01 AM
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