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School Consolidation Won't Save Mississippi Much Money, Consultant Says

Posted on: Wednesday, 27 July 2005, 15:00 CDT

Jul. 27--JACKSON -- School consolidation, long a bugaboo issue in Mississippi, probably wouldn't save the state much money, a consultant said Tuesday.

Robert Palaich, a consultant with the firm that developed the state's main public school funding formula, reminded a new education commission how politically "painful" consolidation is, and estimated that combining small districts in Mississippi would probably save only about $500,000 a year in the state's $2 billion school budget.

Palaich and others on Tuesday spoke at the first meeting of a commission to restructure the Mississippi Adequate Education Program, the state's per-pupil public education spending formula.

The Legislature this year created the commission and ordered a study of the MAEP formula. The formula, aimed at creating equity in per-student spending between poor and affluent school districts, has been at the center of heated, partisan battles over education funding in recent years.

Some lawmakers, and Gov. Haley Barbour, believe the formula results in requests for school spending that are too large.

Lawmakers also have debated consolidation for years, but recent attempts, including one this year to consolidate Harrison County's districts, have failed.

Senate Education Chairman Mike Chaney, R-Vicksburg, a co-chair of the new commission, said consolidation "would probably mean getting rid of an $80,000-a-year superintendent at one of these small districts, and replacing him with a $70,000-a-year assistant superintendent."

House Education Chairman Cecil Brown, D-Jackson, co-chair of the commission, tried to allay fears that the commission will try to route the MAEP formula and spend less on public education.

"It is not our purpose to cut funding for education," Brown said. "It's just a matter of good stewardship for us to review MAEP every four or five years."

But some, including Sen. Hob Bryan, D-Amory, one of the architects of MAEP in the mid-1990s, fear lawmakers will use the new study for "hidden agendas" to cut education.

"This study to me is like when you have to take a trip, and you need a full tank of gas, but you only have a gallon of gas," Bryan said. "Instead of addressing the gas problem, you focus on what brand of windshield wiper blades you should have."

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Copyright (c) 2005, The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Miss.

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Source: The Sun Herald (Biloxi, Miss.)

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