Caroline Rockafellow: Proponent of county-wide school district model in NH

To the Daily Sun,

The budget debate at Wednesday evening’s meeting of the Inter-Lakes School District was not unlike the debates we are hearing across the state. Citizens want strong public schools but find the increasing taxpayer burden to fund those schools to be extreme and overly burdensome. While there is much discussion around how to fund those schools and whether it should be local or state funding, the fact is that our per student cost in most districts is far too high, regardless of how the schools are funded.

With rising costs combined with mandated programs, local school boards are limited on options for managing costs without the need for additional funding from taxpayers. In addition, with the decreasing student populations in many of our school districts, we are losing critical economies of scale. While not a perfect solution and one that comes with many challenges, it is time to seriously consider moving to a county-wide school district model.

By increasing student population with a larger school district, there would be a substantial savings on administrative, facility and programming costs. In addition, the open enrollment question ceases to be an issue as students can freely move to schools within their county where there are open seats, without creating a financial burden for their base school. Within the larger district, we would be able to identify specialized programming, such as additional AP programs, languages, clubs and sports that cannot be sustained in a smaller school district, but that significantly enhances the educational experience and quality of education.

With economies of scale, we have the opportunity to provide an enhanced educational experience for our students, while reducing the burden for our taxpayers. It is time, past time, to seriously look at options that can accomplish both goals.

Caroline Rockafellow

Meredith