School consolidations have the potential to disturb the bonding of students with their communities. This could result in more students who would be escapers as opposed to those who loved rural life and wanted to return or stay in small towns.
For verification of some of the concerns that I raise, check out
Closing and Consolidation Costs in Rural Education
What About the Effect of School Consolidation?
States have faced major challenges regarding health and education. Nearly all have regarded small school districts as inefficient. School consolidation is seen as a way to improve education and decrease costs, but are there side effects from this "treatment?" I talked to a rural sociologist who works regularly in the health and education fields. He was talking to various rural education groups and they related to him that voluntary (and state-imposed) school consolidations were having an impact on the leadership opportunities for students. When 3 small high schools reduced down to one, that meant 2 less quarterbacks, 2 less class presidents, and similar decreases in leadership positions for other rural students.
School consolidations also impacts the type of students that become "the best and brightest" and are therefore eligible for professional schools. Studies show that smaller schools do seem to distribute educational resources more appropriately. This benefits the disadvantaged and, to some degree, restricts the affluent. Larger schools and districts benefit affluent students on the whole moderately, but they compound the negative effects of poverty on the educational achievement of poor students. These results apply whether the school is in an urban or rural place. In other words, smaller schools and districts currently penalize their own "best and brightest" which diminish their chances of professional school. Students from larger schools in larger towns are more likely to be admitted. For more information see The Ultimate Education Reform: Make Schools Smaller
The process of consolidation to increase school size increases the potential for affluent students and increasingly impair the chances of those who were in poverty. Continual increases in the size of schools, coupled with the retraction of affirmative action programs, may insure that primarily the affluent students from the largest school districts will do well enough to enter professional school. Since we already know that those higher on the socioeconomic scale are least likely to choose generalist careers and underserved areas for practice, this would mean fewer and fewer rural professionals. Even the rural students would be affected by school consolidation. Rural students facing consolidation are often forced to attend more distant schooling and have fewer connections to their rural community and with less appreciation of community interactions. Rural students attending larger, more distant schools would have less opportunities for extra-curricular activities and leadership experiences. The statistics regarding the declining interest in rural practice were beginning to make sense.
Why do rural kids return to small towns? Perhaps it is the experience of the bond
with the town that these kids seek. If we destroy this bond with consolidation,
what will draw them home again?
There are also reasons not to consolidate based on outcomes. Smaller school districts, although more costly, have better high school graduation rates! In a more and more competitive global workforce environment our nation should prioritize this first key step more and more.
More at
Centralization and Regionalization
Character, Color, Admissions, and Physicians
Preprofessional Information For Students, Parents, Advisors