In the current orthography, a single consonant causes the previous vowel to be read as long, and this holds for `ß`, which is considered in the current orthogra

In the current orthography, a single consonant causes the previous vowel to be read as long, and this holds for `ß`, which is considered in the current orthography to be a single letter (though it was historically a ligature). Changing `ß` to `sz` would make an exception to this general rule.