True, huge districts that oversee many schools over a large geographic area lack the personal touch. Neighborhood schools in smaller districts allow parents a greater voice about everything from curriculum to lunch menus. And now a new law rightly allows cities or groups of cities with at least 65,000 residents to create districts of their own.
But we believe that what is driving much of the murmuring against Utah's super-districts, Jordan and Granite, is that east-siders don't want to help pay for the new schools needed in burgeoning west-side communities.
That attitude, where it exists, is unfortunate and self-serving. It fails to recognize the interdependence of all county residents in the public school system.
When the east side's population was younger, all taxpayers contributed to building schools. But now that the school-age population is moving westward, folks whose east-side schools may be closed because they have too many empty seats are talking about pulling out and taking their tax dollars with them.
That's not only unfair, but may prove shortsighted as well. Many older east-side schools that do not meet new seismic standards will have to be retrofitted or rebuilt, and soon. In small school districts, there will be fewer taxpayers to pay for the improvements.
City officials on both sides of the valley who are considering creating smaller districts should thoroughly investigate the cost. Sandy may be able to pull off a tax savings by forming a district that would not be billed for west-side expansion, but other cities could see a substantial hike in taxes to pay for administrative and construction costs. Small districts also wouldn't have the same buying power.
Simply put, expenses per taxpayer would be higher, and state per-pupil appropriations would stay the same, both in the new district and in what remains of the old.
Cities should carefully weigh the benefits and costs - to their own residents and to their neighbors - before jumping on the small-district bandwagon.
For more commentary, see http://www.sltrib.com/opinion.
For more commentary, see http://www.sltrib.com/opinion
