Consolidation is short for school consolidation, the process whereby smaller, usually rural schools, are replaced by a larger school:
It is my basic belief about elementary schools that consolidation is not the answer; the schools should be small, well equipped, and have superb teachers, highly paid. Expensive, certainly, but all good things are. Peace is expensive; freedom, the basis of peace, is even more expensive. Life itself is extremely expensive.Rachel Peden (1901–1975) was a newspaper columnist, also known by the pen names “the Hoosier Farmwife” and “Mrs. R.F.D.” A terrific writer.
Rachel Peden, The Land, the People (Bloomington, IN: Quarry Books, 2010).