No case to be made for consolidation

I've read with great interest the Daily Herald's editorials and articles about the school district merger being advocated so strongly by board members of West Chicago High School District 94.

All of your articles continue to make a subtle push to take the decision out of the hands of the elected school board members and create a voting battle within each district. I'd like to cut through all this subtle rhetoric and make some predictions on what we should anticipate in the coming months.

I expect that a small group of taxpayers in the Benjamin District 25 school district will begin a petition drive to get the question of consolidation on Carol Stream and West Chicago ballots. I expect that another group of taxpayers in the Benjamin school district will form a group squarely against this proposed consolidation.

I also expect that the Benjamin school board will be distracted for many months because of this battle created by the high school board members. Because of this, the board will not be able to focus their energies fully on important issues such as curriculum, teachers, school facilities and expenses.

I believe that consolidation will be a losing approach for Benjamin District 25. For every $1 saved in administrative costs from merging, $2 will be lost to more expensive union contracts and medical insurance costs.

Merging with larger school districts that have a higher tax rate will mean higher taxes for Benjamin 25 homeowners, not lower ones. I also believe that a consolidated district would result in a loss of control over expenses and curriculum at Evergreen and Benjamin schools. Instead of seven elected board members living within Benjamin District 25 borders working with the best interests of their District 25 constituents in mind, we will get a new board running our elementary schools from outside of our neighborhoods.

(How many members of the high school board live in the Benjamin district today?)

West Chicago High School District 94 continues to struggle with many challenges in the areas of finances and in its rocky relationship with the teachers union. Consolidation will not fix these problems. And for District 25 residents, it will not lower taxes and it will not raise student achievement.

Let's focus on the real problems and quit pushing consolidation as a wonder cure.

Tony Molinaro

Carol Stream