Having stripped away a provision that forced arbitrators to consider taxpayers ability to pay when awarding contract settlements between teachers and school divisions, it's surprising that the provincial NDP government is now championing the issue of education cost controls. Their solution is to impose a centralization credo on lower specie school divisions.

Education Minister Drew Caldwell recently wrestled 37 school boards out of an unwieldy pack of 54 boards. To make amalgamation more palatable, the government says that $10 million in savings from the mergers will be channeled back into the classroom.

Sound good. But as Tom Brodbeck from the Winnipeg Sun recently uncovered, $7 million in savings are the result of a cap placed on administrative spending that could just as easily been enforced without the mergers.

Caldwell's centralizing zeal of school boards is a train wreck waiting to happen. A blanket merger would condemn homeowners from less costly divisions to pay higher school taxes. And chances are school taxes would rise in the more costly divisions as well.

Merger-mania is not the silver bullet that will erase school tax inequities between divisions. On the contrary, amalgamation of the school divisions is a shotgun wedding that will lead to higher taxes for all homeowners.

Harmonized collective bargaining agreements will drive up salaries and benefits to the highest common denominator. Issues over harmonized transportation services, French immersion and class size limits will also likely favour the more costly option.

Advocates of amalgamation are quick to point out the disparities in school taxes from one division to another. According to the myth, divisions like St. James-Assiniboia in Winnipeg are able offer low residential school taxes for no other reason than the high commercial property assessment at their disposal.

Collective amnesia over school expenditures keeps the debate to the one-dimensional issue of commercial property taxes. Some divisions have it and the others are just out of luck.

But expenditures must also be considered as a factor driving up property taxes.

A comparison of per pupil expenditures shows that Winnipeg One school division outstrips the rest of the city's divisions by a country mile.

According to the 2001/02 Frame Report Budget, per pupil costs in Winnipeg One are $528 more than second highest Assiniboine South and a whopping $1,367 more than least expensive River East.

By lowering per pupil costs more in line with River East, Winnipeg One could cut expenditures by $41.3 million per year or 18.5 percent. That would go a long way to release the school tax burden on Winnipeg One homeowners and businesses.

Stretching school dollars farther in spendthrift divisions is a far less costly way of closing the school tax gap than through forced amalgamations.

The Education minister should go easy on the tonic of centalization and explore cost controls through competition in schools of choice, and the extension of the Taxpayer Protection Act to school divisions - meaning school taxes and consequently expenditures cannot increase without approval in a popular referendum.