On my part, the fundamental issue about so-called consolidation has always been about local control.
I am not saying that pre-consolidation we had a golden era of enlightened local decisions and involvement. Far from it! For quite some time the State has been glomming on to every aspect of decision-making about education.
Nor am I saying that all wisdom concerning schools lives in the heads of the locals.
But there are a lot of good and interesting ideas out there, because just about everybody knows something about education.
And centralized planning does not work, at least not very well and not very often. At least local mistakes stay local; state-wide mistakes affect every student.
When it comes to schools, one size fits hardly any.
In theory, if your only interest is in saving money, “consolidation” might work. Though I’d think twice before asking any aspect of the State apparatus to help us save money!
But consolidation will not get us better education. Not if it further weakens the already-weak ties citizens have to their schools, and the connections local schools have to their communities.
Rolling back consolidation is only a start. The State must be backed out of many other aspects of the educational enterprise.
I’m voting against consolidation by voting Yes on Question 3.