The School District Merger Lab

States and school districts must face both the urgent challenge of declining public school enrollment and the long-running injustice of inequitable funding. To right-size their school systems and ensure that all students have fair access to educational resources, a number of states are considering district consolidation. By strategically merging districts, states can manage enrollment changes, draw borders to include more diverse student populations, and give school systems more equal access to local property tax revenue. 

Building on the research and redistricting simulations in New America’s 2025 report Redrawing the Lines, this interactive tool allows users to experiment with different school district mergers and see the effects of their plan on the fairness of a state’s school systems, using three measures:

1. Tax-Base Equality
   School districts rely on property taxes for local revenue, but they do not all have the same amount of property value to draw upon. By how much would the merger plan give districts more equal property valuation, on a per-pupil basis?
2. Racial Integration
   School district boundaries are often drawn in ways that replicate residential segregation by race in public schools. By how much would the merger plan reduce such divides and make districts more racially reflective of the statewide student population?
3. Economic Integration
   School district boundaries often separate neighborhoods of different income levels, creating economic segregation between school systems. By how much would the merger plan bring district poverty rates closer to the statewide rate, reducing these class divides?

Select school systems to merge and the tool will calculate the impact in real time. See and export potential consolidation maps to use for advocacy, state policy development, planning, and research.