The administrators' reasons why not

U.S. District Judge U.W. Clemon thinks school systems like Birmingham and Bessemer, which he calls "predominantly black and demonstrably inferior," should merge into the more diverse Jefferson County system to improve their students' performance.

No matter how you feel about the idea, a whole host of reasons -- logistics, economics, community opposition -- make such a union unlikely any time soon, according to today's Birmingham News.

One Birmingham school board member weighed in with a negative view of the proposal: "We're still going to have the same poor children. The economy is not going to change for them because they're in a different school system."