Pennsylvania has 500 school districts — far too many. The state Department of Education should be doing more to encourage consolidation or sharing of services, but instead it has allowed a financial dispute between the Duquesne and West Mifflin school districts to cast collaboration in an unfavorable light. It should resolve the dispute post-haste.

The financially and academically troubled Duquesne district began sending high school students to West Mifflin in 2007, and seventh- and eighth-graders followed in 2012. Duquesne still operates one school with about 400 students in pre-kindergarten through the sixth grade.

West Mifflin gets paid to take the Duquesne students, but the district claims it has been shorted by about $800,000. Last year, it sued Duquesne, the Education Department, state Education Secretary Pedro Rivera and Duquesne’s court-appointed receiver, Paul Long.

In a ruling Tuesday, Commonwealth Court dismissed some of West Mifflin’s claims but said the district really needs to address its grievances with the department. That makes sense. The department never should have let the dispute reach the courts. Taxpayer money was squandered on the legal effort, West Mifflin’s allegations about a financial shortfall remain unresolved, and districts that might have been considering collaboration now have another reason to think twice.

The dispute is regrettable, partly because similar partnerships have operated smoothly. East Allegheny School District, which educates 39 high- and middle-school students from Duquesne, has had no payment problems. The Pittsburgh Public Schools this year began educating about 200 Wilkinsburg students, and it’s had no payment problems, either. 

Government consolidation is a thorny proposition, especially when one would-be partner is considerably poorer than the other. Yet wealthier and poorer districts should collaborate because of the potential benefits to taxpayers and students. The state should address West Mifflin’s complaints with all due speed so a story about a troubled partnership can be reframed as a collaboration that survived a rocky stretch to the benefit of all involved.

First Published: January 23, 2017, 5:00 a.m.