During the period of 50 years, consolidation has drastically reduced the number of school districts in the United States, state government and recommend consolidation, especially in rural schools, this is all done as a way of improving the efficiency of school districts . However, promoting the consolidation of state policies are often challenged on the grounds that do not result in cost savings and not dangerous to lift the achievement of learning. The evidence on this issue most of the cost of education comes from the function that indicates the instructional and administrative costs much lower in areas with students dsitrict in 5000 with 300 students. However, research on the cost of consolidation is almost non-existent. This paper and fill this gap with the cost of evaluating the impact of consolidation on rural schools in New York in the period 1987-1999.
Maintain constant student achievement, we find evidence that school district consolidation substantially lower operating cost, especially when combined with a small district. Operating costs in the range of 25 percent for two 500-student district with 19 percent of 1800-two students in the district. In contrast, the consolidation of lower cost of capital relatively small districts, and the cost of capital increased dramatically when the two districts in 1800 were collected. In general, the consolidation will reduce the cost of two 500-student district by more than 25 percent, to reduce the cost of two 900-student district by 7 to 9 percent, and has little, if any, from the cost of 1500-two students in the district. State assistance for the cost of building adjustent appear to be justified, but only relatively small in scope district alone.
