More Consolidation Is Needed (Editorial)

When it became obvious that the Arkansas Supreme Court’s Lake View ruling on the adequacy and equity of the state’s schools would force school districts in Arkansas to consolidate, we celebrated.

There was then, and continues to be, no way to justify the 310 school districts in this state’s 75 counties, either economically or academically.

We applauded Gov. Mike Huckabee’s bold plan to consolidate school districts with fewer than 1,500 students.

But the Legislature balked under intense pressure to preserve the status quo and finally passed a plan that consolidated only those 57 districts with fewer than 350 students.

With the completion of the Arkansas Statewide Educational Facilities Assessment report, it has become obvious even to the legislators that another round of consolidation is necessary. It may even be inevitable.

The report’s bottom line was this: It will cost an estimated $2.3 billion to rehabilitate the 6,569 classroom buildings, field houses and labs located on 1,571 campuses and containing 85.3 million SF of space to meet court-ordered standards. Another $586 million is needed to enlarge classrooms and fund other renovations to ensure all buildings meet an “educational suitability” standard. And the total jumps to $4.5 billion as enrollment growth and upkeep over the next five years is figured in.

The total price tag is based on the condition of those buildings and calculated by a “Facility Condition Index,” which uses a 100-point scale and compares the cost to renovate to the cost to replace the same amount of space. If the index reaches 65 percent, it’s probably better to tear it down and rebuild than to try and renovate it.

Even the superintendents who fought so hard against consolidation must see that spending millions of dollars on repairs in a district with declining population makes no sense. We still believe that fewer and larger districts is the best way to provide the most educational opportunities to the most students.

It’s impossible to predict what our legislators will do, but there’s no doubt the issue will dominate the next session.

To be fair, the Legislature did come up with academic reforms and raised the state sales tax to 6 cents last year to fund $370 million in improvements, teacher pay raises and expanded preschool programs.

There’s also talk that lawmakers may come up with a measure to force school districts to use the facilities they have more efficiently as a condition for receiving state money. That makes sense to us.

The task force has done an excellent job identifying the needs and costs to bring the facilities up to the standards. We can only hope the legislators will do their part as well.