Better Together for Public Education

The Better Together Coalition was formed to promote educational excellence, efficiency, and greater opportunities for all students, teachers and families across the county by exploring ways to unify school districts while preserving local oversight and enhancing the community.

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The Better Together Coalition asks us to consider: How might school district unification in Marin reduce duplication of administrative costs and services and increase educational opportunities for all children, especially in the communities that feed into the Tamalpais Union High School District which comprise nearly half of the students in the county?

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Whether its one-time project funding or ongoing general operations, facilities expenses, small class sizes or professional development, we believe that coordination, collaboration, and where appropriate, integration just makes sense.

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Rising costs of pensions, healthcare and other administrative services compete with allocating resources toward innovative, diverse curriculum and the learning supports needed to help all students succeed. Recruiting and retaining high quality teachers has only gotten more challenging and competitive. Fiscally, we are seeing growing community fatigue from the frequent bond and parcel tax measures needed to backfill the difference between rising costs and mandated caps on tax-based revenue. And, funding gaps are widening as some communities have the ability to rely more and more on school foundations and local private philanthropy while others can’t.

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We believe that now is the time to examine our current structure to understand the efficiency, effectiveness, and funding equity challenges that exist in our Marin public school system.

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We don’t have the solution. But we know the status quo isn’t working for all children and all communities across the county. Our intention is to create awareness and foster a discussion with the goal of having a study commissioned to formally evaluate our current structure and the pros and cons of greater unification.

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Join us, and together we can make Marin’s public education better for all children in every community.