Perhaps Benjamin Spitzer, Chautauqua Lake Central School superintendent, should have been hired as the new state education commissioner.

His idea to create tuitioning incentive aid to prompt more tuitioning agreements between New York school districts certainly makes more sense than most of the malarkey that has spewed forth from the geniuses at the state Education Department over the past few years.

Spitzer has seen firsthand how a tuitioning agreement between Ripley and Chautauqua Lake central schools has helped taxpayers and, most importantly, children in both districts. Ripley was able to add a three-year-old program, hire a full-time librarian and create an after school program while Chautauqua Lake preserved six positions, stabilized enrollment at the secondary level and introduced several new programs for the school.

If both schools have had a positive experience, why aren’t there more tuitioning agreements?

We remember it being a tough sell for many Ripley residents, with a lawsuit filed by residents with the state Education Department after the agreement was approved by voters in both districts. The time involved in setting up a tuitioning agreement makes it a difficult use of time if there is no guaranteed payoff at the end of the process. That uncertainty likely scares many districts away from the idea. Sptizer’s idea to create an incentive aid program for districts could be the perfect way to overcome some of the issues Ripley residents had with the tuitioning agreement a few years ago and prompt more districts to reach out to their neighbors.

Spitzer recently presented the idea at a Rural School Association conference. Educators should push their elected representatives to make tuition incentive aid a priority during the next legislative session and make sure it is funded in the 2016-17 state budget.