U.S. school districts eye consolidation

WASHINGTON, March 22 (UPI) -- U.S. school officials, burdened with reduced budgets, say they are considering consolidation of school districts.

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said he wants to reduce the number of schools in his state by one third, stateline.org reported Monday.

"If you picture a state with 82 counties and 152 school districts, you start to see part of the problem," Dan Turner, a spokesman for Barbour, said. "This is both an educational opportunity and an economic necessity."

Barbour's office says the change could save $65 million but acknowledges that's a "guesstimate," stateline.org said.

Reducing administrative costs and putting those savings directly into classrooms is the goal of consolidation, educators say. But some school officials oppose consolidation.

"It's never about district consolidation, even when they say it is; it's always about closing schools," Marty Strange, a policy program director for a Maine school district, said. "School district consolidation is just a shoehorn. It's a lot more pleasant to talk about wasteful administrators than it is to talk about laying off someone's child's teacher."