State Rep. Roland Gutierrez, D-San Antonio wants the 17 public school districts in Bexar County like Northside, Northeast, SAISD, and Edgewood re-evaluated to see if consolidation would help make the adminstrative side more efficient.
"I’m not an expert in this field, but I would imagine that there are some inefficiencies when you have 17 different police departments, 17 cafeteria departments, 17 different IT departments, 17 sets of superintendents and executives," Gutierrez said.
Gutierrez has filed House Bill 2542, which calls for a study to see if there is any overlap or wasteful spending among districts that can be consolidated.
The representative envisions the county having a possible setup of one or maybe five school districts. He said that could result in a more equitable distribution of a tax base since Texas schools are funded through property taxes.
"We’re never going to move on from these school finance issues, especially in Bexar County, when have school districts that are so varied in their tax structure," he added.
If the bill passes, it wouldn’t start the merging of districts, it would instead require the Texas Education Agency to complete the study on the effects of potential consolidation by December 1, 2014.
That information would be used for reference in the next legislative session in 2015.
