This balloon won't fly

It is a worthy balloon to float.

It is almost assuredly a lead balloon.

Floating it is State Rep. Kevin Yoder, Overland Park, the 33-year-old chairman of the House committee that controls the budget. He has proclaimed, rightly so, that we have too many school districts in Kansas, and by consolidating, the state could save hundreds of millions of dollars.

Faced with a half billion dollar deficit this coming year, and knowing we cannot legally or morally cut much more out of public schools – by far, the largest budget item, consuming half of all state revenues – Yoder wants to merge some of the 293 school districts in Kansas.

We have, some experts say, about 100 too many districts for a state with our size population. And that, say the experts, is totally inefficient.

I wonder how the Johnson County delegation would vote on such a bill. One would think they would be in favor, since most of the near-empty school districts are in rural Kansas. (Even Topeka, which is not rural, has five districts.) 

But not so fast.

What is good for the goose is good for the gander.

If we don’t want to be hypocrites, we should look in the mirror. Johnson County has too many districts itself for our population. We have six districts, when we easily could get by with three.

De Soto School District, with 6,500 students, could easily merge with adjacent Shawnee Mission’s 27,000-population district. De Soto would be a shot in the arm to Shawnee Mission, and we could eliminate duplication of services, particularly administrators.

The same goes for Spring Hill, with a student population of only 2,000. Why not merge it with nearby Blue Valley’s 21,000-student school district?

And Gardner-Edgerton, with a student enrollment of 4,600, could easily merge with neighboring Olathe School District, with 27,000 students.

Will that ever happen? Over the dead bodies of the parents in the smaller districts. They would never give up their district’s autonomy or identity.

If we wouldn’t do it here, how can we expect rural districts to go along with consolidation? Whole towns could be killed if their schools were closed.

We have to give Rep. Yoder credit. At least he has the courage to say in public what we all know to be true in private. We have way too many districts, here and everywhere. 

He, at least, is thinking outside the box. It will take plenty of creativity, and lots more floated balloons, to plug a monstrous budget deficit without hurting schools or raising taxes.

Contact Steve Rose at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

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