Finally! An Alternative to Merging to Achieve Economies of Scale

We we first started working with private, independent schools more than two decades ago, I was startled by the enormous (and costly) redundancy that we accept as a fact of life in this sector. It seemed nuts to me that there were three PS-6 independent schools within three blocks of each other in St. Louis where I live (and my son went to one of them, back in the day). More specifically, it seemed almost as nuts as there being three Starbucks stores at the same intersection in Houston; e.g., each school with a head, business office, gym, food service, etc. And each school small to begin with.The argument, of course, has always been that redundancy is the price we pay for innovation; that from having, in essence, more than a thousand experiments in school running at the same time, we can move the field forward. Part of me finds that argument specious, particularly so as tuitions rise and enrollments stagnate.Then, along comes this story from the Washington Post, about 9 colleges in Maryland that share a single campus. The critical factor, in my view, is that they are almost non-redundant. But, the students they share can benefit from getting a degree from a smaller institution, yet still have a range of course options befitting a larger school. I think there is a lesson here for us.