Congratulations on an excellent editorial (“When one is better than two”). It makes sense to share school administrators when money is tight and budget deficits are a major concern in Illinois. I understand people want to retain local control and maintain their identities, but perhaps this now is a luxury we can no longer afford.
There is no reason why a superintendent cannot oversee two or three small school districts; perhaps local schools could set up parent-teacher groups in an advisory capacity to see that distinctive identities are preserved as much as possible.
All one has to do is add up the salaries of superintendents and their staffs in each county to see that there would probably be quite a bit of money available for educational purposes if sharing of administrators and their staffs were to occur–things like extra teachers, classes, books, materials, etc.
Ideologically this will be difficult for many to accept. But our schools are in crisis economically and property taxpayers cannot continue to shoulder this burden. Something needs to change.
According to this editorial, there are 888 school districts in Illinois. Taxpayers are paying salaries for superintendents and their staffs and their perks in 888 districts. It makes sense to cut this number to 444. That would be quite a savings for a start.
Sharing administrators is one way to help our schools. Another would be to levy a state income tax to be used exclusively for schools.
