While by far it isn't the biggest priority encompassing Pennsylvania's daunting 2009-10 state budget-preparation exercise, state lawmakers should include money in the upcoming fiscal year's spending package for a study on possible consolidation of school districts.

All potential money-saving opportunities, as well as opportunities for efficiencies, in education and in the state government should be studied. And, whichever changes are deemed to be workable and in the taxpayers' best interests should be implemented.

Regarding school district consolidation, Gov. Ed Rendell has proposed a plan that would reduce the number of school districts to no more than 100 from the current 501 — a move that might or might not be too drastic.

On whatever scale they could be implemented, the governor believes consolidations would enable more efficient operation of schools and spread the local share of educational costs over a wider range of property owners — and save considerable sums of money.

Perhaps he's right on all those counts.

Nevertheless, such a major upheaval won't be easy to accomplish, considering all the issues that will have to be ironed out, including, but not limited to, transportation arrangements involving rural areas, differences in pay among teachers and other staff members in the districts being combined, what to do regarding administrative positions, whether all current buildings should or should not remain in use, and public opposition stemming from loss of community identity.

But there's an issue that could prove to be a much bigger roadblock, and that issue will be in Harrisburg.

Rendell wants a legislative commission formed that would have one year to develop as many as two merger plans that would be submitted to the General Assembly. There's no problem with that.

The potential problem lies in Rendell's idea that, if the General Assembly rejects both options, the state Board of Education would then have the authority to consolidate districts.

It's hard to fathom that lawmakers from any part of the state would feel comfortable with that scenario which, presumably, would not guarantee any local control or consideration of local input and concerns.

And such unease would extend — justifiably — all the way down to the local district level.

"There is nothing sacrosanct about the need to maintain 500 separate school districts across the state — each with its own staggering, and growing, administrative costs," Rendell said.

He's right.

However, his plan, which would mean fewer than two school districts for at least half of the state's 67 counties, won't be as easy to "swallow" as a proposal that might have suggested an initial reduction of, for example, 100 or 150 districts.

And, it's hard to imagine that a big change such as the governor proposes could be accomplished with the speed that the governor might envision.

An article in Thursday's edition of the Butler Eagle acknowledged the prospect of the governor's proposal receiving a cool reception from local school board members who fear that mergers would close some schools and result in overcrowding on some fronts. The article also reported that some small districts that have explored mergers concluded that the costs of merging would have outweighed benefits.

Still, mergers in some instances might be desirable and achieve all that Rendell envisions.

The last major state-ordered consolidation of the state's school districts occurred in the 1960s, when the commonwealth had more than 2,000 districts. Today, more than 40 percent of the state's 501 school systems enroll fewer than 2,000 students each, and more than 80 percent enroll fewer than 5,000.

The study the governor proposes should be given the go-ahead by the legislature and be accorded adequate funding to accomplish its mission. Even without a state government money crisis, a periodic look at issues such as school consolidation makes sense — and 40 years is a long time for such an in-depth evaluation to have been ignored.

Rendell will be out of office before any significant consolidation is accomplished, even if consolidation were to get a quick go-ahead. He has less than two years left in his final term, and the 2009-10 budget won't be resolved until June or later.

For now, state taxpayers are entitled to the facts — whatever the proposed study eventually determines. Once those facts are in hand, taxpayers can be a meaningful part of the dialogue.

In any case, the state Board of Education should not be given dictatorial power as to what eventually happens. That proposal is hazardous in terms of the best interests of education in the commonwealth.