Hawkins School Consolidation Bill Passes State Senate, Heads to House

A bill from 12th District Republican State Senator Brad Hawkins to encourage small school districts to consolidate is moving forward.

The Senate passed the bill Thursday, which would give districts that agree to consolidate a temporary boost in state money to make upgrades to their buildings.

It's intended to lower taxpayer costs by getting consolidation among smaller districts that spend much more than the state average per student on education.

The average cost during the 2019-2020 school year in state and local dollars was $13,879 per student.

According to numbers provided by Hawkins' office, some smaller districts in the 12th District pay a much level per student - $22,125 (Orondo), $26,342 (Mansfield), $28,745 (Palisades).

Hawkins contends that smaller districts spend much more per student mostly because of front-office administrative costs, and could be lowered if the costs were shared among multiple districts.  

The bill provides a 10 percent state funding assistance enhancement for ten years to qualifying school districts that voluntarily consolidate.

Known as SB 5487, it passed the state Senate by a 40-9 margin, and now heads to the House.

“I’ve been encouraging my legislative colleagues to think differently about how we deliver educational services,” said Hawkins. “If we were to reimagine school districts today based on what we spend on education, we wouldn’t draw up 295 different school districts in our state, especially when many of the small school districts are spending much more than the state average per student. It doesn’t make sense for the taxpayers."

Among the nine lawmakers voting against the bill were eight Republicans and one Democrat.