Illinois residents, who have long resisted efforts to merge small school districts, may be warming to the idea.
According to a recent Tribune/WGN-TV poll, one-third of Illinois voters support consolidating small school districts into larger ones to try to cut down on administrative costs.
The poll results may signal that the historic resistance to mergers is softening, said Bob Leininger, a former state superintendent who heads a state task force examining the possibility of consolidation.
“I’m a little bit surprised, but very encouraged,” Leininger said. “Maybe people are finally realizing that consolidation can lead to fiscal efficiencies and a better use of taxpayer dollars.”
But Leininger, who supports merging all elementary and high school districts into “unit” districts, will still have a tough sell: 45 percent of those polled oppose mergers, while 33 percent favor them and the rest had no opinion.
The Tribune poll surveyed 1,200 likely voters in the March 19 primary. Conducted from Feb. 9 to 12, it has an error margin of 3 percentage points.
Illinois has the third-largest number of school districts in the nation, ranging from 26 pupils in Otter Creek-Hyatt School District in LaSalle County to about 435,000 in the Chicago Public Schools.
Three years ago, Gov. George Ryan appointed a task force to look into overhauling the state’s education funding system. Consolidation is part of that discussion.
Leininger said his group’s recommendations, to be delivered to the General Assembly in the summer, will not include mandatory consolidation but will likely suggest offering financial benefits to qualifying districts that merge.
Consolidation has long been unpopular in Illinois. When talk of statewide school district mergers last surfaced in 1985, turf wars broke out as districts scrambled to maintain their students, buildings and property tax bases. Wealthy districts resisted taking on poorer districts. Predominantly white districts did not want to merge with minority districts. Districts argued about team mascots, colors and sports rivalries.
The strongest resistance came from suburban Chicago schools, where opposition was so fierce that it became an issue in the gubernatorial campaign. The next year, state lawmakers watered down the consolidation law until it became moot.
But with school deficits rising in many districts, enrollments falling in others and pressure growing for a more equitable way of dividing state education dollars, taxpayers may be looking more favorably at mergers.
The Tribune poll found the strongest support coming from collar county voters, where 36 percent favor mergers. Forty-four percent of suburban voters oppose them, while 20 percent have no opinion.
Downstate, 33 percent support mergers, while 47 percent oppose them.
The least support came from suburban Cook County, where only 27 percent favored mergers, compared with 44 percent who oppose them. Because the Chicago system is so large, it would not likely be affected by any merger efforts.