Catherine Reilly
June 9, 2004
School and School District Consolidation
Major Concepts
1. School Consolidation
Combining two or more schools into a single larger school; some of the original schools
would be closed
2. School-District Consolidation
Combining the administrations of two or more school districts; none of the schools within the
districts would necessarily close
It is possible to consolidate schools but not districts and it is possible to consolidate districts but
not schools and it is possible to do both at once.
3. Economies of Scale
The principle that it can be more efficient to make larger quantities rather than smaller; for
example, if you want to make a dozen cookies, it is more efficient to bake one batch with
twelve cookies rather than twelve batches of one cookie each
4. Diseconomies of Scale
The concept that after a certain point it becomes less efficient to make larger quantities; for
instance, if you tried to make too many cookies at once the ingredients wouldn’t fit in the
mixing bowl, the cookies would stick together on the baking sheet, etc.
Graphing Economies of Scale
The graph below illustrates the cookie example. The vertical axis represents the amount of
effort per cookie and the horizontal axis represents the number of cookies. If economies of
scale exist, then one would expect the following relationship:
Economies of Scale in Baking
Number of Cookies
Effort per Cookie0
0
The effort needed to make a one-cookie batch is high. One has to mix the ingredients, grease
the pan, form the cookie, etc. However, if one were to make a two-cookie batch, effort per
cookie would be nearly half since virtually all of the steps are the same, except that one would
form two cookies. Effort per cookie decreases as the batch becomes larger. At some point, if
one encounters problems with the shear volume of cookies being made, effort per cookie begins
to rise. The lowest point on the curve would correspond to the number of cookies that required
the