School consolidation always looks easier from the outside. With the state facing a budget crunch, many Kansas taxpayers think it’s only logical to reduce school funding needs by requiring the state’s smallest school districts to consolidate and, presumably, cut their building and administrative costs. It is logical, but it doesn’t always work. Just ask the Pawnee Heights and Hanston school districts in western Kansas.

The two districts, pushed by declining enrollments, had operated under a cooperative agreement for five years. Hanston was home to a middle school for students from both districts, and the Pawnee Heights district operated an elementary school in Burdett and a high school in Rozel. They shared a superintendent, librarian, counselor and other personnel and operated a joint sports program.

That agreement will expire June 30 so district officials thought it was reasonable to ask voters last month to approve formal consolidation of the districts. A majority of voters in both districts had to approve the consolidation. Voters in the Pawnee Heights district, which now serves just 147 students, approved the consolidation. Voters in the Hanston district (77 students) said no.

Hanston voters were concerned they would have only three members on a seven-member school board. They also worried that the consolidated district still would be so small that it soon might be forced to consolidate with yet another partner, perhaps Larned, which would leave Hanston children with a 35-mile bus ride to school.

Officials from the two districts tried to put together another cooperative agreement but failed. On Tuesday, less than a month before they must notify teachers whether their contracts will be renewed, the two districts went their separate ways. Pawnee Heights plans to handle all 12 grades next year, and Hanston has opened talks to try to establish a cooperative agreement with the Jetmore school district.

It’s hard for people in larger cities to understand the emotional decisions facing many small school districts. When districts combine, schools often are closed. Left without any operating schools, towns that already are struggling will see their populations decline even faster. Who wants to put their elementary school child on a bus to attend a school 35 miles or more away?

In one sense, it’s great to see people in towns like Hanston fighting for their children and their schools. It’s too bad that because of financial realities so many of those towns eventually will lose that battle.