First Step in Oklahoma School Consolidation Plan

School Consolidation with Administration is a new bill that has been approved by the House Budget Committee.  Financial incentives will be given to districts that “share” their Supers.  Which means school boards that don’t have the money to pay them or need to allocate the resources elsewhere will be forced to fire them and “share” a Super with a nearby district.  It’s not an incentive - its force with the power of the state dollar.


Forced school consolidation begins with administration.  When a Superintendent is 30 minutes to an hour away from a school district - that district suffers.  These Supers are already strapped with responsibilities and resources that will be allocated to the districts that are larger or closer to where they’re located.  The results become principals, teachers, parents, and kids in districts nearer are in a better position to be more vocal about what they need for their schools.  This puts more rural schools at a disadvantage.

Rural schools that have a disadvantage at the local level then develop a disadvantage at the state level.  Ultimately, the state begins to believe that these rural schools would just be better off if they could be closer to their administration and it’ll save money in the long run anyway … this turns into school consolidation.  When schools leave a town the town dies.  Businesses fail, families have to move closer to the cities where they’re jobs are, local farmers and ranchers have to drive further away to get supplies, hospitals in the area aren’t able to support themselves because people are moving away and it goes on and on.

We’re already going to hurt rural areas with redistricting which will force more rural legislators out and incorporate more suburban legislators, will we now force our children and families out of rural Oklahoma by killing our school systems too?

Watch closely how the next 4 years will be the slow and painful death of Rural Oklahoma.