This Is Not News

Pennsylvania Governor Ed Rendell proposed today that PA begin planning to consolidate school operations across the state, cutting the number of districts from 501 to somewhere near 100. The article’s well worth a read, since it also talks about school funding in the current economic climate. Obviously the devil will be in the details, but this sounds like it could be a very smart idea. I know “local control” is often touted as an absolutely essential component of education and other policies, but this is one case where I wish the “run it more like a business” advice would get followed – it’s a lot easier to make changes and get the most for the money when there’s not duplication of effort and numerous competing administrations creating inefficiencies. One thing I will want to see is how the target number was attained – too much consolidation could make districts a little too sprawling and hard to control. But here in the Northeast US, I definitely think we err too much on the side of numerous small municipalities and districts – I’ve read ridiculous stories from New Jersey, for example. So I’ll be interested in seeing if a governor with two years left in his term can get this done.