Jul 7, 2015 3 min read

Pennsylvania is made up of a complicated patchwork of municipalities, many of which could easily be merged to save taxpayers money and confusion, and the same goes for its school districts.

As of 2011, Pennsylvania had 500 school districts, each with its own administrative and central office staff, transportation and food service programs and buildings. This is not the product of some ineradicable holy writ, and not necessarily the way it’s handled in other states – in Maryland and Virginia, for instance, individual school districts remained in place, but they are administered on a county level, yielding notable cost savings and greater efficiency.

State Rep. Timothy Mahoney, a Democrat from Fayette County, would like to bring that to Pennsylvania. He proposed legislation asking the state Department of Education to study whether school districts should merge into single county administrations. Mahoney spearheaded a similar study in Fayette County in 2011, which found county taxpayers would save up to $20 million per year if school districts operated under one administrative umbrella. However, many residents fear a loss of community identity if their districts were merged in such a way, and Fayette County voters rejected a consolidation proposal.

Undeterred, Mahoney told Pittsburgh public radio station WESA-FM, “I think there’s a lot of waste, a lot of duplication of services in all these school districts across the state. … I just think that people need to keep an open mind on change. We just have to face that we’re not doing this right.”

The study Mahoney led in Fayette County makes for interesting reading. It found if the six school districts within the county, which includes the Brownsville and Uniontown area school districts, merged into a countywide system, it would lower millage rates and decrease property taxes. It also found 108 fewer staff members would be needed under such a scenario, leading to a savings of about $7 million.

A particular eye-opener in the study is how the cost of operating buildings could be lowered under a county-administration model and likely enhance the education of students. Smaller buildings that serve fewer students cost more to operate and, according to the study, “many of them lack adequate educational materials, such as library/media centers, and adequate health care facilities. Most of them use itinerant teachers, much of whose time is wasted in travel from building to building.”

It also pointed out Fayette County has two career and technology centers, whose mission and services overlap. If one of them were eliminated, it would save taxpayers at least $2 million per year.

And when it comes to buses and transportation, a countywide system using software to tailor routes would save money, as would the elimination of vehicles that are not being filled anywhere close to capacity on their daily trips during the school year.

It’s fine to study history in classrooms, but those classrooms shouldn’t be operated under a system that could readily be consigned to history’s dustbin. Mahoney’s proposal should be given a green light and its findings given serious consideration.