Newspaper: School merger study makes sense

Pottstown is a borough on the western end of Montgomery County. It has its own school district. Pottstown is surrounded by three townships (West Pottsgrove, Lower Pottsgrove and Upper Pottsgrove) that have their own school district.

From a geographic and economic standpoint, there should be one school district serving the Pottstown area.

But which superintendent drawing a six-figure salary is willing to give up his or her job if the school districts merge?

Which nine-member school is willing to disband, with nine people giving up their only ability to feel important?

And what about the teachers' unions? They like having more districts so they can pit one district against the other when it comes to contract talks.

The entrenched education bureaucracy and the unions like the current system. The big loser is the taxpayer.

That is the heart of the current debate over Gov. Ed Rendell's call to study merging many of the state's 500 school districts.

Mergers should save taxpayer dollars be eliminating administrators and reducing the cost of purchasing supplies and equipment.

The Associated Press is running a series this week in many Pennsylvania newspapers about the roadblocks to school consolidation.

The Mercury, which covers Pottstown and the Pottsgroves, would like to see a study done on the possibility of a merger. Both school boards oppose the study.

From an editorial published in Sunday's edition of The Mercury:

Rendell's proposal was an ambitious one and was probably asking too much too quickly from Pennsylvanians. But, it is not asking too much to study the pros and cons and examine the issue of consolidation as something to be seriously considered.

Finding a better way to achieve a good education for all students is a goal that requires starting somewhere. That place may be with "your schools, your children."

Read the full editorial at the newspaper's Web site.

You can also read the first part of the AP series at the Web site.