But here in Utah, the Legislature has made it easy - we believe too easy.

Based on a year-old law, all that's required is a vote of the people who want to disengage from an existing school district. Those remaining in the original district have no say; neither does the State Office of Education.

The law takes what should be a complicated process to ensure financial fairness and academic quality and makes it so simple that many possible outcomes are ignored. It allows a city or group of cities to simply pick up their marbles and go home in the middle of the game and leave everyone else to sort out who wins and who loses.

In the growing Jordan School District, Utah's largest with about 78,000 students, it appears the losers could be those residents on the district's west side if five east-side cities decide to put it to a vote. If the vote succeeded in forming a new district, there would be a reduced property-tax base to pay for new schools on the burgeoning west side. And feasibility reports say some east-side schools may have to close.

City councils in Cottonwood Heights, Draper, Midvale, Alta and Sandy will vote today on whether the school-district division should go on November's ballot.

The cities have studied the issue; they have heard consultants report on the possible ramifications for both the new and old districts. We hope they've been convinced that they do not yet know enough to make a decision.

The potential impacts are too serious for one group of voters, who cannot be expected to weigh the issue objectively, to decide it on their own. Instead, the Legislature should revise the law to require the State Office of Education to draw new district boundaries if all voters in the district decide to divide it.

We encourage these cities to take the prudent course and do nothing. Although the Legislature has irresponsibly given them the power to divide the district, they would be wise not to use it. And the Legislature should jettison the ill-advised new law.