Start Sharpening Your IT Pitches for the Next School Year

Start Sharpening Your IT Pitches for the Next School Year

By Rachel Eckert, Consultant

The school year may be wrapping up, but the work is far from over for many school districts across the nation.

The efforts to secure adequate funding for the next year is a constant struggle for nearly all school districts and this year is no exception. What’s new this year is the battle being waged in many states–battles that could have lasting effects on the structures of many states’ school districts and ultimately have an impact on the IT industry.

Here’s the challenge: Almost half of all school districts in the nation have under 1,000 students and not all of those districts are rural areas; over 2,000 of those districts are in metro areas. Fragmented school districts often lead to uneven distributions of funding across a state, and uneven funding can result in poor student performance and learning gap. These fragmented school districts have been targets in states like Indiana, Kansas, Mississippi, Pennsylvania, and Oklahoma, where legislators have repeatedly proposed consolidating school districts.

Consolidating these school districts can produce some administrative efficiencies for states. In a time when funding continues to be tight and many school districts have yet to return to pre-recession per-pupil funding, finding any source of savings can be a lifeline to a struggling school district that greatly needs updated textbooks and technology.

These battles and tight budgets don’t spell all bad news for the IT industry. Creating administrative efficiencies can generate cost savings that a state or school district can leverage to upgrade their network infrastructure to support issuing devices to each of their students. While many of these battles happen at the state capital between legislators, teachers, and parents, the IT industry can play a role in the discussion. Helping all parties see that technology can help bridge the gaps and ensure that even if school districts consolidate or merge, networks, content, and devices will ensure that students aren’t left holding the short end of the stick.

As school districts embark on a new fiscal year come July 1^st, they’ll begin their planning for upcoming technology upgrades for the next year, and so now is a great time to strike up those conversations on how you can help them manage their networks, content, and devices.

Need help identifying top K-12 education IT decision makers and opportunities? Contact immixGroup’s industry-leading Market Intelligence team today to learn about specific programs and contacts that have a pressing need for your IT solution.