Comparing+Economy+of+Scale+in+Large+and+Small+Districts

The snapshot data for District 1 and District 2 is like looking at two completely different worlds. District 1 is a small district made up of 3 schools, 830 students, and 131 full-time staff members. District 2 is a large probably suburban district made up of 45 schools, 32,326 students, and 4,582 full-time staff members. About the only thing similar between the two districts is the product they both produce – learning. A closer analysis of the districts produced some surprising results: District 1: $10,529 District 2: $10,316
 * Total Revenue per pupil

District 1: $8,611 District 2: $8,908 District 1: $39,771 District 2: $50,307
 * Total Operational Expenditures per pupil
 * Average teacher salary

The total revenue per pupil wasn’t much of a surprise – basically the same as expected. The surprise was the total operational expenditures per pupil being very similar. One would think the smaller district would have less operational expenditures because you have fewer students. This is where economy of scale comes into play. District 1 only has 3 schools that services 830 students. Each campus is fully staffed and all areas maintained throughout the school year. District 2 has 45 schools with 32,326 students and their total operational expenditures per pupil is only about $300 more per student. This expense is very close because a larger district is able to work more efficiently. District 2 student enrollment per campus would be about 4 times as high as District 1. The other factor that jumps out in analyzing the two districts is the average teacher salary. Competitive salaries allow a district to attract and maintain high quality teachers. Smaller districts do not have the resources to offer teacher salaries that are competitive to larger districts. However, smaller districts usually only compete with other districts similar in size. The operational efficiency of larger districts enables them to offer higher teacher salaries. They must compete with other larger districts to gain every edge that they can in the classroom. The trick is offering competitive salaries while also having the resources to impact instruction in a positive way.