Research Paper
How Many School Districts Does Ohio Need?
Examines Ohio school-district structure, administrative scale, and student outcomes using Ohio, Florida, Tennessee, federal data, and the research literature.
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RESEARCH Overview
Executive Summary
This paper asks how many school districts Ohio should have, what the administrative costs of its structure are, and what comparisons with other states can actually show.
It confirms 611 traditional Ohio public school districts on its stated counting basis. The analysis finds a bounded relationship between consolidation and general-administration cost, particularly for smaller districts, but no simple relationship between district structure and student outcomes.
Insights
Key Findings
- Ohio has 611 traditional public school districts on the paper's stated basis.
- Florida is a one-district-per-county model; Tennessee is not.
- Scale economies are bounded: larger is not always cheaper.
- General administration is narrower than all central-office spending.
- Student outcomes are multicausal.
Framework
Methodology & Scope
The paper prioritizes NCES, Census, ODEW, Auditor of State, and equivalent Florida and Tennessee primary data, with NAEP for cross-state outcomes and peer-reviewed research for causal or scale-effect claims.
context & qualifications
Limitations & Notes
No consolidation, retention, or restructuring recommendation is made and states are not ranked. Cross-state comparisons are bounded by governance, demographic, finance, and data-definition differences; some enrichments remain pending.
Explore the Findings
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