Consolidating Schools

Dana Goldstein gets to one of the key points as to why people fight tooth-and-nail against school consolidation (h/t The Dish):

Currently, New York State has some of the most regressive school districting in the country. Due to a system that has changed very little since the early 19th century, there are 697 school districts in New York. 
In Florida, the state closest to New York in terms of population, there are just 74 school districts.
Politically, consolidating school districts is very controversial, even though larger school systems are often able to offer more course options and other perks. In large part, this is because consolidation is a full frontal attack on white privilege and class privilege. Currently, the ability to pay Katonah property prices and taxes earns a family the right to prevent their children from attending school with the children of Mt. Kisco's Guatemalan day-laborers. Some people move to Katonah instead of to Mt. Kisco for exactly that reason.
To be sure, neighborhood school zoning can lead to de facto segregated schools even within districts that encompass entire counties. But there are many good examples of progressive large school distrcits. Montogomery County, MD has made great strides in educating both affluent and low-income children in part because of the community's and administration's conviction that this should be a shared responsibility. 

The other thing which goes unaddressed is that people assume that because suburban school kids test well, the reason is because the schools are good, as opposed to the concept that the cost-of-living might just segregate out students who would struggle with the tests.  Just because test scores overall might be lower, the kids scoring high on the tests would still get just as good of an education, but parents are uncomfortable with the concept.  It is a strange concept to think that Florida only has 74 school districts in the state, while my county (out of 88) has 9 school districts in it.