A recent report included a disturbing fact about West Virginia public education. According to a story from Mountain State Spotlight, there are now eight county school districts — Mingo, Tyler, Upshur, Logan, Nicholas, Boone, Roane and Randolph — of the state’s 55 where the West Virginia Department of Education is overseeing operations.

Fifteen percent of state school districts are under the state DOE microscope. That’s jarring.

That’s not an indictment against the students or teachers in any of those districts. They’re not why the state has intervened. The actions of the county boards of education themselves led to the state department stepping in.

State investigators found the Mingo school board rife with political infighting and not following proper parliamentary procedures. The Tyler school board was accused of improperly following open meetings laws and county policies. In Nicholas County, the board was found to have hired a sex offender who was a relative of the superintendent. Other counties have been beset with financial mismanagement.

All of this jeopardizes the education and health of tens of thousands of students in those districts. Rather than focus on improving outcomes, those school boards are paying more attention — or in some cases, paying little to no attention – to other issues. This behavior can’t be allowed to go on, nor can it be allowed to infect other districts.

The West Virginia Legislature must have a real — perhaps difficult — discussion about how to recalibrate the way school districts operate, up to and including consolidating the 55 county school districts into a smaller number of multi-county districts.

Of course, the best way to govern is for local people to make the right decisions for themselves and their neighbors. Consolidating districts would lessen that. Yet the behavior of some of these school boards has endangered the system that has allowed communities to make their own decisions about the education of their children.

There are obvious challenges to reducing the number of school districts in the state. What’s the proper total? Will consolidating some counties lead to animosity within the new combined districts? But state legislators need to talk through those challenges as soon as possible. Maybe they can find a less dire measure to fix the problem. Maybe there’s no other choice.

What can’t be argued is that eight county school districts under state intervention is way too many. That number must not get any larger, and it is the Legislature’s responsibility to find the solution.