 State Superintendent Chris Koch said Thursday that Gov. Pat Quinn's
proposal to force school consolidation is all but dead."I doubt
there is going to be anything that comes out this year that gives
that kind of direction, that says you have to consolidate," Koch
said.
Koch said the Illinois State Board of Education has always had
the power to step in and take over failing schools. He said that
power also includes the ability to dissolve a local school district.
Koch said the state board will continue to "focus on incentives" to
consolidation.
Few lawmakers supported Quinn's proposal to require mergers. Even
fewer local school officials supported it.
Morris Elementary School District 54 Superintendent Terri Shaw
said folks in Morris have never liked the idea of school
consolidation, and they liked the idea of a state mandate even less.
"We've looked at (consolidation) in the past, but local school
boards have always said no," said Shaw.
Morris is a town of 12,000 residents, and Shaw's district is one
of four in the community. She is responsible for about 500 students,
with the smallest of the local schools enrolling a little more than
100 students. But Shaw said parents don't want to merge the schools,
so Morris will likely continue with four separate districts.
"Who is paying the bills? Local taxpayers are paying the bills at
local school districts," said Shaw. "Those are the people with a
vested interest in the schools. And they don't want change."
State Rep Pam Roth, R-Morris, said local parents know the most
about their local schools.
"If (school consolidation) makes sense in a community and a
community is supportive of it, it needs to be a community decision.
I don't think as a General Assembly we should be making and
mandating school consolidation," Roth said.
About 108 miles to the west in Colona, Superintendent Kyle Ganson
said he doubts parents in his Quad Cities area district will ever
merge the five elementary school districts that feed United Township
High School.
"There are a lot of local issues, nuances really, that would have
to be worked out if the local districts were to come together,"
Ganson said.
Ganson said each of the five local elementary districts have
different costs, different debt loads and different needs. There
would have to be sweeping agreements before consolidation could ever
move forward.
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Quad Cities area state Rep. Rich Morthland, R-Moline, said if
school mergers make sense, it may be worthwhile for the state to
look at consolidations.
"There may be savings," said Morthland. "But you also have to
ask, at what cost?"
Ganson said Illinois owes schools across the state billions of
dollars and does not appear to have a plan to pay those debts. He
said he doubts the state can make consolidation work.
"I've been doing this for 28 years. And each year I lose
confidence in the government, both in Springfield and Washington,
that they know what is best for education," Ganson said.
Quinn first proposed the idea of required consolidation during
his budget speech in February. Quinn said Illinois has too many
school districts and too many highly paid superintendents.
Koch said the idea of forced consolidation caught him by surprise
as well.
"We had not done any analysis around that," he said. "It was not
something that we had input into or crafting the numbers for."
[Illinois
Statehouse News; By BENJAMIN YOUNT]
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