State should encourage school mergers

We suspect that most people in Pennsylvania wouldn’t mind seeing a reduction in the number of school districts statewide. The same goes for municipalities.

Our state has far more local government subdivisions than many others. The world has changed tremendously since many of these lines were drawn. Things could be operated much more efficiently.

The problem is that when it comes to their own communities, people are less likely to embrace this sort of change.

That’s especially true when it comes to school districts.

Emotional ties and history make it difficult for communities to give up their longtime district identities. And when difficult circumstances do lead a district to seek a merger partner, it leads to tremendous opposition from the community being asked to take them in.

No wonder there’s only been one school district merger in Pennsylvania in recent decades. That was in Beaver County and involved a pair of districts with flagging enrollment levels. It’s harder to accomplish a merger when one district effectively is being asked to take in a struggling neighbor.

The Antietam School District is a good example of the challenges involved. A decade ago, the district engaged in preliminary merger talks with neighboring Exeter. The opposition among Exeter residents was fierce, and the idea was put aside.

A decade ago the merger idea was floated because Antietam has a small, heavily residential tax base with little room for economic growth. Those conditions haven’t changed. The district has the highest tax rate in Berks County.

What has changed is that Antietam suffered tremendous damage during flooding in early July. The district’s high school took a big hit and is closed for the year while officials figure out the best way to address the situation. As they weigh their options, district leaders have reached out to neighboring districts to gauge interest in the possibility of a merger.

One of those districts — Oley Valley — had a discussion of the idea in which troubling comments were made. A resident suggested that Antietam’s proximity to Reading meant that its children would be of a “different element” than the “good kids” in Oley Valley schools. A school board member indicated agreement with the statement.

That expression of bigotry was roundly condemned in the wake of the meeting, and rightly so. But it’s reflective of a larger problem.

Too many people take a narrow-minded view toward education, wanting the best for their own community but paying little heed to what’s happening in neighboring districts, even when they are mere steps away. When another district is facing issues, it’s seen as someone else’s problem.

We find this very troubling, but not surprising. It’s human nature to focus on one’s own needs first. There are legitimate concerns about mergers when it comes to finances and educational issues such as class size. We’ve seen that appeals to altruism are not enough to overcome them.

Ultimately it is up to the state to address this problem. After all, the entire public school system is under Harrisburg’s purview. And the state has acted to address school mergers in the past. Back in the 1960s action by the Legislature led to mergers that brought the number of districts from about 2,200 to 669 in just 10 years. Today there are 500.

But the idea is just as politically touchy in Harrisburg as it is on the local level. Gov. Ed Rendell’s effort to consolidate districts went nowhere, and though the notion of pushing for school mergers comes up from time to time, nothing of substance has been approved.

The idea of mandating school mergers was controversial in the 1960s and would be even more so today. But the state could offer some incentives to make mergers more palatable. State Sen. Judy Schwank, D-Berks County, has proposed measures that would ease the financial burden on merging districts. Enough help from the state would defuse one of the most potent arguments against mergers — that it will be too costly for local taxpayers.

Finally establishing more equitable school funding by the state would help, too.

For too long there has been a desperate need to change the way the state goes about paying for education. The contrasting fortunes of neighboring districts is very much a symptom of this.

The state must make sure every student in Pennsylvania has an opportunity for the best possible education, regardless of their address.