Report on America’s School Districts

This report finds that the notion of allowing small enclaves to withdraw a portion of their taxes to serve only themselves is one that is unique to education. Imagine allowing a citizen to withhold taxes for a library that they don’t use or a sidewalk on which they don’t walk. Picture a neighborhood attempting to opt out of public works support if they promised to keep only their street patched or if they agreed to never cross the bridge that needs repair. Envision providing exemptions from federal taxes for people who don’t have family members receiving Medicare or those who may object to foreign policy. Surely, there is a legitimate argument to be made for each one of these options, but that argument never outweighs the case for the public good.

Edbuild (2017). Fractured: The breakdown of America’s school districts. United States: Edbuild.

https://edbuild.org/content/fractured/fractured-full-report.pdf

Challenges for Rural School Districts

The Consortium for School Networking (CoSN) convened two focus groups consisting of the CTO’s and Superintendents for rural districts to ask them what their challenges and opportunities were, with the top four challenges being:

1. Broadband access - For rural districts, access is the most pernicious obstacle to taking the digital leap. Even if a school has internet access, it may not be up to par since it’s not cost-effective for telecommunication providers to lay fiber to remote areas where some students live and many students live far apart from each other and the school.

2. Funding - Rural districts are often funded from a smaller tax base and, because of their smaller size, have a larger percentage of per student spending go to overhead costs such as transportation.

3. People - Rural districts have a difficult time recruiting staff, substitute teachers and support services personnel.

4. Understanding the “why” - Finally, some rural communities may be skeptical of the role of technology in their schools and their communities.

The study stated, however, that opportunities exist at the same time.  Rural districts have unique opportunities due to their smaller size.  They are often nimbler and leadership has more ownership of the schools. Rural districts often have community involvement. Teacher retention is strong – often teachers in the town were once students at those same schools.

CoSN (2018). The challenges and opportunities of rural districts in taking the digital leap. Washington, D.C.: CoSN. http://cosn.org/sites/default/files/Challenges%20and%20Opportunities%20of%20Rural%20Districts%20Taking%20Digital%20Leap.pdf

Education Jobs Cut in 2010-2011

Results from AASA’s latest economic impact survey, Cliff Hanger, indicated that anticipated jobs cuts for the 2009‐10 and 2010‐11 school years would surpass the number of jobs saved by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. With both houses of Congress already considering a second round of stimulus funding targeted to education jobs, the results of this follow‐up survey ‐‐ focusing solely on accounting for job cuts ‐‐ make a startling case and bolster support for additional federal funding. This study finds that over three fourths of districts will cut or eliminate 27,516 education jobs in 2010-11 and 53 percent will freeze hiring. Based on these survey results, AASA estimates that the national total for education jobs cuts will be 275,000 in 2010-11, representing almost all of the 300,000 jobs saved by ARRA.

Ellerson, N. (2010). Projection of national education job cuts for 2010‐11 school year. Alexandria, VA: AASA. http://www.aasa.org/uploadedFiles/Policy_and_Advocacy/files/AASAJobCuts050410FINAL.pdf