School administrators who appeared before the Kansas Legislature last week shouldn’t apologize for their consolidation “idea.”

The four public school administrators that appeared before Kansas House and Senate committees Thursday may not have feared for their lives, but they were careful to give their plan to consolidate Kansas school districts a soft sell.

“This is only an idea,” one of them told the committee. That may be true, but it wasn’t exactly a spur-of-the-moment suggestion. They’d been working on the idea for three years, but it was obvious that they were concerned about the reception it would get both in the Legislature and around the state.

Their plan would consolidate the state’s 303 school districts into as few as 40 districts in an effort to improve educational opportunities while freeing up dollars to meet increased costs for salaries, supplies and health benefits. The four authors of the plan estimated it would save the state $240 million to $480 million that could be put to other uses to improve the state’s public schools.

The proposal would create districts of about 11,000 students each. Each district would have a single superintendent and uniform staff contracts that would streamline costs. The big sticking point is that each district also would have fewer buildings, which implies that some towns would lose the local schools that anchor their communities.

With an enrollment just under 10,000 students, the Lawrence school district would be unlikely to feel any serious impact from such a plan. But in western Kansas, an 11,000-student district could span a huge geographic area. Could a central administration serve all the needs of such a district? Would state legislators and the many rural and small-town residents they represent even consider such a consolidation plan?

The administrators — superintendents from Manhattan, Salina and Pratt, along with a former finance director from the Dodge City district — know they are treading on thin ice with this proposal, but it’s time to think outside the box.

It would be great to preserve every small school in every small town in Kansas, but making that the only priority may not provide our youngsters with the best educational opportunity the state can afford. We have to be looking for other ways to serve students in parts of the state that are less populated in a way that not only preserves but enhances the quality of life in those communities.

It was no surprise that the administrators’ plan drew instant criticism from some legislators. The good news is that at least a few thought it was “a very intriguing idea.” Congratulations to the four administrators for being willing to risk putting their idea on the table for public discussion and debate.