Striving for cost-efficiency, Governor Ned Lamont and Connecticut Democrats have introduced a handful of new bills in the legislature that push for the consolidation and redistricting of schools with a population of 2,000 students or less.

There’s no denying that Connecticut’s economy is in desperate need for ambitious action, a $3.7 billion deficit lurking over the next two fiscal years. The three regionalization bills are a response to that alarming deficit as a bid for cost-saving initiatives in both state and local budgets.

However, school consolidation done in the manner suggested in these pieces of legislation would be a big mistake, especially when Lamont’s bill will effectively penalize those districts who refuse to regionalize.

Per Lamont’s proposal, small districts “that have their own superintendent would be required to ‘receive direction concerning the supervision of [its] schools’ from another district’s superintendent or name a ‘chief executive officer’ to oversee the schools,” according to the Connecticut Post.

Furthermore, the bill states that “the Commissioner of Education may withhold [funding] from any municipality… that continues to employ its own superintendent.”

Lamont claims that the plan is more cost-effective than the current structure of our school systems and will be a benefit to the state in the long-run. And in a conference before reporters last Friday, the governor emphasized that this bill was not a form of coercion even though he’d “be more favorably inclined to provide the bonding [a school] needs” if it is following the methodology of the consolidation plan.

Many parents and students have voiced concerns about the impact the bill will leave – a Facebook group called “Hands Off Our Schools” has around 4,000 members – with grievances ranging from the implied forced compulsion to the negative effect it might have on children’s educations.

Most of the criticism is stemming from small towns that are more affluent, such as Wilton, where many parents have raised an issue with having to intertwine their community’s cultural and educational needs with those of other districts, according to interviews with the Connecticut Mirror.

But the bigger problem with this consolidation plan is that there is no evidence that it will be cost-efficient or that it will improve the education living in Lamont’s targeted districts.

A report by the Connecticut School Finance Project found that “other variables, such as student income and student-teacher ratios, have a much stronger effect on student achievement than size of school districts.” And the lack of studies on whether Lamont’s bill will actually save money leaves the question up in the air.

The regionalization of school districts should not be treated as an experiment. Like with the proposed consolidation of the Connecticut State Colleges and Universities system through the “Students First” plan – which the New England Association of Schools and Colleges outright rejected and essentially labeled a failure – consolidating small districts should be out of the question. There is too much at stake with education.

If Lamont wants to save the state money, he can look elsewhere, like by increasing the income tax on the wealthy. Instead, he’s turning his back on this state’s next generation.