In the early days there were thousands of country schools. In fact almost every country school was considered its own school district. Decisions were made by the parents and neighbors on how money was collected and spent for their children's education.
At some point in time there was a county superintendent of schools. The county superintendent was instructed to visit each country school at least twice during the school year. Even when travel was by horse and buggy the county superintendent was able to meet this requirement.
By 1903, when Iowa celebrated its 100th birthday as being part of the Louisiana Purchase, there were 2.2 million people in Iowa and 700,000 public school children celebrated Louisiana Purchase Flag Day. At that time Iowa had 12 congressmen, had a major presence at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition "world's fair" in St. Louis and had major players from Iowa on the national scene. We were a big deal, with a world-renowned educational system.
Today in Iowa there are 3 million people and approximately 482,000 K-12 students: 218,000 fewer children than 106 years ago.
In 1980 our state budget was 1 billion dollars. Today it is 6 billion dollars. We have not seen the population grow significantly; we have not seen this type of increase in commercial and industrial activity. We have augmented our revenue streams by accepting gambling dollars; we've increased the sales taxes and the property taxes either by raising the levy or by simply keeping the levy the same but collecting more due to increases in valuations.
Right now 60% of the 6 billion dollar state budget is going to education. I believe the split for this is 40% K-12 and 20% for higher education. If that figure is correct about 2.4 billion state dollars are educating 482,000 children. Plus local property taxes and sales taxes also support public education.
With state education spending increasing, yet teacher pay, total number of students and test and student performance measures not reflecting the increased dollar spending. We need to ask the tough questions.
The New Zealand experience.
Readers are entitled to ask what possible relevance the experiences of a country with a population of 3.8 million have for the State of Iowa. New Zealand is not heavily populated but it is roughly equivalent to the median American state. Since public education in the United States is constitutionally a responsibility of the fifty states and territories, the Ministry of Education in Wellington is the functional equivalent to a state department of education. Iowa has 2.9 million people and we spend over 3 billion dollars for public education. This is why looking at what they did is very relevant.
New Zealand had an education system that was failing as well. It was failing about 30 percent of its children -- especially those in lower socio-economic areas. We had put more and more money into education for 20 years, and achieved worse and worse results.
It cost us twice as much to get a poorer result than we did 20 years previously with much less money. So we decided to rethink what we were doing here as well. The first thing we did was to identify where the dollars were going that we were pouring into education. We hired international consultants (because we didn't trust our own departments to do it), and they reported that for every dollar we were spending on education, 70 cents was being swallowed up by administration. Once we heard this, we immediately eliminated all of the Boards of Education in the country. Every single school came under the control of a board of trustees elected by the parents of the children at that school, and by nobody else. We gave schools a block of money based on the number of students that went to them, with no strings attached. At the same time, we told the parents that they had an absolute right to choose where their children would go to school. It is absolutely obnoxious to me that anybody would tell parents that they must send their children to a bad school. We converted 4,500 schools to this new system all on the same day.
The 1933 Brookings Institution Report
This report was commissioned by the State of Iowa by the Committee on Reduction of Governmental Expenditures. This was 1933...remember the depression years? It is a 653 page book that describes its research and findings in great detail. On pages 13-14 it suggests...
A Bill for the Reorganization of the local Administration of the Public Schools. It is suggested that the bill provide:
1. That the county shall be the unit of local public school administration.
2. That all school corporations and school districts, together with their present organization shall be abolished, except that they shall be retained as taxing districts for debt service until their present indebtedness is liquidated.
3. That local public school financial administration should be integrated with the financial administration of the county, estimated receipts and estimated expenditures of the school Districts should be included in the County budget and approved by the county Board of Supervisors, custody of school funds should be the duty of the County Treasurer, and school receipts and expenditures should be included in the County Auditor's and State Auditor's reports.
4. That the public schools of the county shall be locally supervised by the County Board of Education which should be elected directly by the people.
5. That the county Board of Education shall have full power to organize and manage the public school system of the county, subject to regulations from the State Board of Education.
6. That each County Board of Education shall appoint without term a county superintendent having the qualifications prescribed by the State Board of Education.
7. That each County Board shall be empowered, subject to the county budget and the state-aid law, to create staff positions and attach salaries thereto, to employ clerical and other assistants, and to provide executive and staff positions and appoint persons to such positions.
8. That the County high school board of trustees shall be abolished and its functions transferred to the County Board of Education.
The data gathered by the staff relative to the local school district in Iowa logically and inevitably lead to the conclusion that the whole groundwork of major economies and of major improvements in efficiency resides in the adoption of a larger political unit as a basis for school administration and support...The County. The smallest unit which would serve the present purpose of obtaining efficiency and economy is the county. (Note...this same Brookings report recommends 25 counties for Iowa...but schools had to happen first.)
How do we move this discussion forward?
I have provided some background information to get you started...now I feel I need to provide you with some additional information on why I have an interest.
I live in Dallas County, the fastest growing County in Iowa. I have a son at Waukee Middle School and a son at Waukee High School, Waukee is the fastest growing school district in Iowa. I am the son of a school superintendent (District 196, Rosemount/Apple Valley/Eagan) in Minnesota. My fathers' district grew much faster than anything that has ever occurred in Iowa. When he started in 1959 there was one school k-12 ...and today over 30 buildings with 4 high schools. Public education is of great interest to me for both reasons. I am currently a County Supervisor in Dallas County, When I moved to Iowa in 2000, Mr. Leonard Hadley (retired CEO at Maytag) had written an opinion piece about county consolidation...he was right...the Brookings Institution was right over 75 years ago. Make Kossuth County the two counties it was originally intended to be for an even 100 counties...then pair them up to make 50...or quarter them to make 25. The Brookings Institution thought 25 was a good number and said "if you combine the counties into 25 blocks without dividing any county...the most isolated citizen, traveling by automobile, in any of the new counties would be nearer to the county seat in actual travel time than his father was in horse and buggy days."
What you really need to understand is the practical application of the principles suggested. In many rural counties you may not need a County Board of Education. In Southwest Iowa you already have school districts that serve multiple counties. In fact you have already adopted the principles. In the County of Jefferson (county seat Fairfield) it is in fact a county educational unit already. Dubuque County as well I have heard. Basically the county boundaries are the county unit...or close. We are not describing a system that is RADICAL.
Here is the principal applied to Dallas County Iowa. Although the fastest growing population area in Iowa...we have school districts with declining enrollments. We have the following school districts mostly contained in the County. Waukee Community schools, Adel-Desoto-Minburn schools, Perry schools, Van Meter schools, Dallas Center-Grimes schools, Woodward-Granger schools. Dexter and Redfield, cities in Dallas County are part of West Central Valley schools with Stuart and Menlo. A small portion of northwestern Dallas County is part of the Panora District of Guthrie County, as well as, a small portion of southwestern Dallas County is in the Earlham district in Madison County. Now you do the same thinking about where you are from and you can apply the principles below to your own county.
I know how many school building there are in the county and I know how many kids go to them. Why would I need 6 1/2 to 7seven transportation directors to determine how many buses are needed? You could centralize some of the mechanics and routes to gain efficiency. The food and janitorial supply vendors already know where and how much food and supplies need to be delivered on a daily and/or weekly basis. This would centralize purchasing. Once nutrition standards are determined to you need 6-7 nutrition directors? Curriculum Directors, Assistant Superintendents, Superintendents, business managers' et al.
We have 370 school districts in Iowa. San Diego has 3 million people...they have 8 school districts. It would be a lot simpler for the AEA's to deal with 99 districts. They would each work with 8-10. By the way...you ought to thank the Des Moines Register for showing the expense of the AEA's. They didn't exist when the Brookings Institution wrote its report. I believe they do have a coordinating function...but they need this scrutiny as well. The administrative salaries in education are astounding to me compared to most private industry and most certainly County government.
Senator Matt McCoy has put forward a bill on this subject and he is getting blasted...YOU ARE TAKING LOCAL CONTROL AWAY...I'm sorry, but you are not taking local control away. You are improving local control. Why? Because you are going to fund every school building with the pupil funding allowance as determined by the state, passed on to the County Board of Education. (which, by the way, are elected by the people and they could be elected on a normal primary/general schedule eliminating separate school elections). Once the money has been allocated to the school building, a parent/teacher council chaired by the principal will determine how the money is spent for that building. You are not closing schools AND each school building has its own school board made up of parents and teachers educating the kids at that school. The high schools in the towns get to keep their current names and sports teams as well.
Right now...if I am concerned about something going on at the middle school or high school with my sons I have two choices, I either have to go to each individual principal...if I get no satisfaction, I can go to the school board...but the school board would have to go talk with the school administrators. I would rather like the opportunity to bring the matter up at a parent teacher council meeting right at the school. I would also tell you that parents and teachers would have to work together cooperatively in the education of the children at that school. This happens when they can have a direct say through these school councils and the appropriation of funds. You might even find some parental expertise to help fill an unfunded need that might be of interest to the school.
This, my friends, is LOCAL CONTROL. When you get the parents directly involved with the education of their children. If we can reduce the administrative cost...we just might be able to reward the teachers. I would ask you to have your legislators demand from the State Board of Education what are the non-teacher costs to the system. How many administrators? What percentage is spent on the student in the classroom? I would not be shocked to see the same 70% administration cost that New Zealand had.
One more example. I will use Marion County. Today, Pella schools and Knoxville schools are being asked to cut 6.5% out of their existing district budgets. It is hard to find these cuts. Since administrative cost, is off the table some other decisions need to be made. Let's say Pella says we cannot continue to offer German, Spanish and French. So they cut French. Knoxville says we cannot continue to provide both higher math and higher science...so they cut higher science. With the County model what you say is...we want every student within Marion County to have access to higher math, science and languages. So you keep at least one Spanish, French, German and Chinese teacher so they could teach students by travelling, teach through computers and/or have a regional high school for specialty subjects. You become student focused. Everyone has access and a state educational standard is a requirement. Administrative buildings in every district, already paid for by tax dollars, would have space for educating students.
The carrot or the stick?
I prefer both. You pick a date in the future, such as 2015; there will be county units for administration of schools. If the schools get together early and can consolidate FUNCTIONS...NOT SCHOOLS...their County units can keep the money saved by doing it early. You could early elect your County Board of Education so they could hire the right County Superintendent. It would be competitive...but I bet you would get 99 good educators that just might earn that six figure income by being accountable to the taxpayer.
Remember the taxpayer. 2.4 BILLION dollars going to the K-12 system, fewer students, declining scores, good teachers not being compensated fairly, poor teachers getting the same money as good teachers. If you don't have any children in the system...you know what?...look at you taxes...you still contribute to schools. What are you getting? Sales taxes, property taxes and 60% of the state budget to education.
Iowans seem stuck in the rut of looking at their problems the same way, with the same assumptions. There is a high level of pessimism that nothing will change. In the public education sector, New Zealand found it bloated and top heavy, so the government eliminated all boards of education, which would be like Iowa eliminating every school district. Every school would be governed by its own board of trustees, elected by the parents. Each school was given a lump sum based on its enrollment, with absolutely no strings attached. It is an idea that should have been adopted in Iowa over 75 years ago.
Purpose of the Public Schools (1933 version)
It would seem to be impossible to entertain any intelligent views at all about public instruction unless we first remind ourselves what it is for and what justification we can advance, on the one hand for laying taxes on all the people for the support of free instruction of all the children, and on the other for compelling every man to send his child to school whether he will or no.
The answer is not far to seek. We maintain public schools in our American commonwealths not primarily for the advantage of the individual, but rather for the sake of protecting society from the menace of ignorance and vice. A century of litigation was required to establish the principle, and the courts of nearly all the states have employed in its defense a line of cogent reasoning which is scarcely capable of refutation.
But what once was a moot question in the process of hammering out the commonwealths is now accepted as a matter of course. As has happened so often in history, the on-coming generations forget principles. What was once an aspiration contended for and attained by strong men and women becomes a fetish which is felt to justify the inclusion of almost any activity in the schools on the ground that it "contributes to education." Such intellectual laxity is expensive.
At some point in time there was a county superintendent of schools. The county superintendent was instructed to visit each country school at least twice during the school year. Even when travel was by horse and buggy the county superintendent was able to meet this requirement.
By 1903, when Iowa celebrated its 100th birthday as being part of the Louisiana Purchase, there were 2.2 million people in Iowa and 700,000 public school children celebrated Louisiana Purchase Flag Day. At that time Iowa had 12 congressmen, had a major presence at the Louisiana Purchase Exposition "world's fair" in St. Louis and had major players from Iowa on the national scene. We were a big deal, with a world-renowned educational system.
Today in Iowa there are 3 million people and approximately 482,000 K-12 students: 218,000 fewer children than 106 years ago.
In 1980 our state budget was 1 billion dollars. Today it is 6 billion dollars. We have not seen the population grow significantly; we have not seen this type of increase in commercial and industrial activity. We have augmented our revenue streams by accepting gambling dollars; we've increased the sales taxes and the property taxes either by raising the levy or by simply keeping the levy the same but collecting more due to increases in valuations.
Right now 60% of the 6 billion dollar state budget is going to education. I believe the split for this is 40% K-12 and 20% for higher education. If that figure is correct about 2.4 billion state dollars are educating 482,000 children. Plus local property taxes and sales taxes also support public education.
With state education spending increasing, yet teacher pay, total number of students and test and student performance measures not reflecting the increased dollar spending. We need to ask the tough questions.
The New Zealand experience.
Readers are entitled to ask what possible relevance the experiences of a country with a population of 3.8 million have for the State of Iowa. New Zealand is not heavily populated but it is roughly equivalent to the median American state. Since public education in the United States is constitutionally a responsibility of the fifty states and territories, the Ministry of Education in Wellington is the functional equivalent to a state department of education. Iowa has 2.9 million people and we spend over 3 billion dollars for public education. This is why looking at what they did is very relevant.
New Zealand had an education system that was failing as well. It was failing about 30 percent of its children -- especially those in lower socio-economic areas. We had put more and more money into education for 20 years, and achieved worse and worse results.
It cost us twice as much to get a poorer result than we did 20 years previously with much less money. So we decided to rethink what we were doing here as well. The first thing we did was to identify where the dollars were going that we were pouring into education. We hired international consultants (because we didn't trust our own departments to do it), and they reported that for every dollar we were spending on education, 70 cents was being swallowed up by administration. Once we heard this, we immediately eliminated all of the Boards of Education in the country. Every single school came under the control of a board of trustees elected by the parents of the children at that school, and by nobody else. We gave schools a block of money based on the number of students that went to them, with no strings attached. At the same time, we told the parents that they had an absolute right to choose where their children would go to school. It is absolutely obnoxious to me that anybody would tell parents that they must send their children to a bad school. We converted 4,500 schools to this new system all on the same day.
The 1933 Brookings Institution Report
This report was commissioned by the State of Iowa by the Committee on Reduction of Governmental Expenditures. This was 1933...remember the depression years? It is a 653 page book that describes its research and findings in great detail. On pages 13-14 it suggests...
A Bill for the Reorganization of the local Administration of the Public Schools. It is suggested that the bill provide:
1. That the county shall be the unit of local public school administration.
2. That all school corporations and school districts, together with their present organization shall be abolished, except that they shall be retained as taxing districts for debt service until their present indebtedness is liquidated.
3. That local public school financial administration should be integrated with the financial administration of the county, estimated receipts and estimated expenditures of the school Districts should be included in the County budget and approved by the county Board of Supervisors, custody of school funds should be the duty of the County Treasurer, and school receipts and expenditures should be included in the County Auditor's and State Auditor's reports.
4. That the public schools of the county shall be locally supervised by the County Board of Education which should be elected directly by the people.
5. That the county Board of Education shall have full power to organize and manage the public school system of the county, subject to regulations from the State Board of Education.
6. That each County Board of Education shall appoint without term a county superintendent having the qualifications prescribed by the State Board of Education.
7. That each County Board shall be empowered, subject to the county budget and the state-aid law, to create staff positions and attach salaries thereto, to employ clerical and other assistants, and to provide executive and staff positions and appoint persons to such positions.
8. That the County high school board of trustees shall be abolished and its functions transferred to the County Board of Education.
The data gathered by the staff relative to the local school district in Iowa logically and inevitably lead to the conclusion that the whole groundwork of major economies and of major improvements in efficiency resides in the adoption of a larger political unit as a basis for school administration and support...The County. The smallest unit which would serve the present purpose of obtaining efficiency and economy is the county. (Note...this same Brookings report recommends 25 counties for Iowa...but schools had to happen first.)
How do we move this discussion forward?
I have provided some background information to get you started...now I feel I need to provide you with some additional information on why I have an interest.
I live in Dallas County, the fastest growing County in Iowa. I have a son at Waukee Middle School and a son at Waukee High School, Waukee is the fastest growing school district in Iowa. I am the son of a school superintendent (District 196, Rosemount/Apple Valley/Eagan) in Minnesota. My fathers' district grew much faster than anything that has ever occurred in Iowa. When he started in 1959 there was one school k-12 ...and today over 30 buildings with 4 high schools. Public education is of great interest to me for both reasons. I am currently a County Supervisor in Dallas County, When I moved to Iowa in 2000, Mr. Leonard Hadley (retired CEO at Maytag) had written an opinion piece about county consolidation...he was right...the Brookings Institution was right over 75 years ago. Make Kossuth County the two counties it was originally intended to be for an even 100 counties...then pair them up to make 50...or quarter them to make 25. The Brookings Institution thought 25 was a good number and said "if you combine the counties into 25 blocks without dividing any county...the most isolated citizen, traveling by automobile, in any of the new counties would be nearer to the county seat in actual travel time than his father was in horse and buggy days."
What you really need to understand is the practical application of the principles suggested. In many rural counties you may not need a County Board of Education. In Southwest Iowa you already have school districts that serve multiple counties. In fact you have already adopted the principles. In the County of Jefferson (county seat Fairfield) it is in fact a county educational unit already. Dubuque County as well I have heard. Basically the county boundaries are the county unit...or close. We are not describing a system that is RADICAL.
Here is the principal applied to Dallas County Iowa. Although the fastest growing population area in Iowa...we have school districts with declining enrollments. We have the following school districts mostly contained in the County. Waukee Community schools, Adel-Desoto-Minburn schools, Perry schools, Van Meter schools, Dallas Center-Grimes schools, Woodward-Granger schools. Dexter and Redfield, cities in Dallas County are part of West Central Valley schools with Stuart and Menlo. A small portion of northwestern Dallas County is part of the Panora District of Guthrie County, as well as, a small portion of southwestern Dallas County is in the Earlham district in Madison County. Now you do the same thinking about where you are from and you can apply the principles below to your own county.
I know how many school building there are in the county and I know how many kids go to them. Why would I need 6 1/2 to 7seven transportation directors to determine how many buses are needed? You could centralize some of the mechanics and routes to gain efficiency. The food and janitorial supply vendors already know where and how much food and supplies need to be delivered on a daily and/or weekly basis. This would centralize purchasing. Once nutrition standards are determined to you need 6-7 nutrition directors? Curriculum Directors, Assistant Superintendents, Superintendents, business managers' et al.
We have 370 school districts in Iowa. San Diego has 3 million people...they have 8 school districts. It would be a lot simpler for the AEA's to deal with 99 districts. They would each work with 8-10. By the way...you ought to thank the Des Moines Register for showing the expense of the AEA's. They didn't exist when the Brookings Institution wrote its report. I believe they do have a coordinating function...but they need this scrutiny as well. The administrative salaries in education are astounding to me compared to most private industry and most certainly County government.
Senator Matt McCoy has put forward a bill on this subject and he is getting blasted...YOU ARE TAKING LOCAL CONTROL AWAY...I'm sorry, but you are not taking local control away. You are improving local control. Why? Because you are going to fund every school building with the pupil funding allowance as determined by the state, passed on to the County Board of Education. (which, by the way, are elected by the people and they could be elected on a normal primary/general schedule eliminating separate school elections). Once the money has been allocated to the school building, a parent/teacher council chaired by the principal will determine how the money is spent for that building. You are not closing schools AND each school building has its own school board made up of parents and teachers educating the kids at that school. The high schools in the towns get to keep their current names and sports teams as well.
Right now...if I am concerned about something going on at the middle school or high school with my sons I have two choices, I either have to go to each individual principal...if I get no satisfaction, I can go to the school board...but the school board would have to go talk with the school administrators. I would rather like the opportunity to bring the matter up at a parent teacher council meeting right at the school. I would also tell you that parents and teachers would have to work together cooperatively in the education of the children at that school. This happens when they can have a direct say through these school councils and the appropriation of funds. You might even find some parental expertise to help fill an unfunded need that might be of interest to the school.
This, my friends, is LOCAL CONTROL. When you get the parents directly involved with the education of their children. If we can reduce the administrative cost...we just might be able to reward the teachers. I would ask you to have your legislators demand from the State Board of Education what are the non-teacher costs to the system. How many administrators? What percentage is spent on the student in the classroom? I would not be shocked to see the same 70% administration cost that New Zealand had.
One more example. I will use Marion County. Today, Pella schools and Knoxville schools are being asked to cut 6.5% out of their existing district budgets. It is hard to find these cuts. Since administrative cost, is off the table some other decisions need to be made. Let's say Pella says we cannot continue to offer German, Spanish and French. So they cut French. Knoxville says we cannot continue to provide both higher math and higher science...so they cut higher science. With the County model what you say is...we want every student within Marion County to have access to higher math, science and languages. So you keep at least one Spanish, French, German and Chinese teacher so they could teach students by travelling, teach through computers and/or have a regional high school for specialty subjects. You become student focused. Everyone has access and a state educational standard is a requirement. Administrative buildings in every district, already paid for by tax dollars, would have space for educating students.
The carrot or the stick?
I prefer both. You pick a date in the future, such as 2015; there will be county units for administration of schools. If the schools get together early and can consolidate FUNCTIONS...NOT SCHOOLS...their County units can keep the money saved by doing it early. You could early elect your County Board of Education so they could hire the right County Superintendent. It would be competitive...but I bet you would get 99 good educators that just might earn that six figure income by being accountable to the taxpayer.
Remember the taxpayer. 2.4 BILLION dollars going to the K-12 system, fewer students, declining scores, good teachers not being compensated fairly, poor teachers getting the same money as good teachers. If you don't have any children in the system...you know what?...look at you taxes...you still contribute to schools. What are you getting? Sales taxes, property taxes and 60% of the state budget to education.
Iowans seem stuck in the rut of looking at their problems the same way, with the same assumptions. There is a high level of pessimism that nothing will change. In the public education sector, New Zealand found it bloated and top heavy, so the government eliminated all boards of education, which would be like Iowa eliminating every school district. Every school would be governed by its own board of trustees, elected by the parents. Each school was given a lump sum based on its enrollment, with absolutely no strings attached. It is an idea that should have been adopted in Iowa over 75 years ago.
Purpose of the Public Schools (1933 version)
It would seem to be impossible to entertain any intelligent views at all about public instruction unless we first remind ourselves what it is for and what justification we can advance, on the one hand for laying taxes on all the people for the support of free instruction of all the children, and on the other for compelling every man to send his child to school whether he will or no.
The answer is not far to seek. We maintain public schools in our American commonwealths not primarily for the advantage of the individual, but rather for the sake of protecting society from the menace of ignorance and vice. A century of litigation was required to establish the principle, and the courts of nearly all the states have employed in its defense a line of cogent reasoning which is scarcely capable of refutation.
But what once was a moot question in the process of hammering out the commonwealths is now accepted as a matter of course. As has happened so often in history, the on-coming generations forget principles. What was once an aspiration contended for and attained by strong men and women becomes a fetish which is felt to justify the inclusion of almost any activity in the schools on the ground that it "contributes to education." Such intellectual laxity is expensive.
