SPRINGFIELD - School mergers may become more palatable to parents under a proposal that is heading to the Illinois Senate.

Lawmakers want to take the sting out of mergers that can help the bottom line of cash-strapped schools and provide more classes for students. However, the maneuver can also divide communities.

"Whenever you mention what I call the 'C-word' in rural areas, people are concerned," said state Rep. Roger Eddy, R-Hutsonville, a co-sponsor of the reforms who also is a school superintendent. "Schools are the part of their community that they associate with the vitality and the life of that community."

The proposal sailed through the House unopposed Wednesday.

Illinois has 875 school districts, 200 contain only one school. The state estimates that 700 of the districts contain five or fewer schools.

Current Illinois law requires voters approve the proposed consolidation. However, potential consolidations involving three or more districts can be scuttled if one district's voters opposed the move.

Under the proposed reforms, the districts that approved the consolidation would be able to go forward with it, while the other could continue operating as a single unit. The lone district also gets five years to join the merger.

"There are a lot of rural districts where property values are going down, and the population is declining," said Eliot Regenstein, the administration's education adviser. "There are districts that have a hard time making it. For some of those districts this is in an option."

The measure also jettisons out-of-district tuition for elementary schools that are not part of a combined district that includes a high school. Instead, a hybrid board with members from all affected schools would set a high school tax rate to cover costs.

Adjacent school districts could also share a single high school, while keeping elementary schools separate.

Matt Adrian can be reached at matt.adrian@lee.net or 789-0865.