Jessica Bakeman is reporting at Capital New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo and state education leaders are planning a more aggressive push for school district mergers in 2015, arguing the reorganization of the state’s 700 districts would cut costs and increase educational opportunities for students. Lawmakers and stakeholder groups have offered policy proposals that aim to encourage mergers, such as using state aid to ease tax increases that would result for some districts. However, the major barrier to mergers is popularity. Combining school districts requires approval from residents in each affected community, and recent precedent suggests that voters just don’t want to do it. Since 2010, 17 of 19 school district merger attempts have failed. Read the full story at Capital New York.