Gov. Jennifer Granholm has advocated school district
consolidations as a means of increasing public school efficiency. Moreover, she
has asked legislators for the power to force district mergers, at her
discretion.[1]
Elaborating on that request, she has suggested that merging
"small" districts would be her main priority, since exceptionally large districts, such as Detroit, might already be too big. The governor also
identified districts suffering from declining enrollment as candidates for
compelled consolidation.[2]
The present study aims to evaluate the merits of district
consolidation by determining the relationship between district size and
per-pupil expenditures in Michigan. It will attempt to answer several questions:
