The subject of regionalization or the consolidation of schools has been a major issue of discussion and educational research for the past 15 years. A fact that has come out of the research is that consolidation is expensive. Yet, some observers continue to recommend consolidating the remaining school districts. When schools are closed, children have to be bussed at a tremendous cost. In order to accommodate the larger school districts, land has to be bought and schools built, which could cost billions of dollars. Additional staff would also need to be hired to fill these new school buildings. In terms of human costs, larger schools are conducive to depersonalization, which leads to student dropout and drug or alcohol problems. Regionalization would also disenfranchise the schools from their communities by drastically reducing the number of school board members. Additionally, it is almost impossible to fairly distribute one budget among several school districts involved; some always feel shortchanged. An alternative to regionalization is to be creative and improve the things that we have and work together toward common goals. We need to quit comparing our educational system to Japan or Russia; our system and the needs of our students are different. We need to think before we leap (or spend) and not jump on every "educational bandwagon." (LP)