District split giving taxpayers a painful education

Pity the school superintendent who has to engage in the following conversation sometime soon should SB48, in its fourth revision, pass the Utah Legislature:

SUPERINTENDENT: "Patrons, thank you for coming to tonight's meeting. I have an announcement. We will need to raise taxes for school construction."

PATRONS: "Cool! So we're going to get a new school? Where will it be? Will it have air conditioning?"

SUPERINTENDENT: "Uh. No. We're going to contribute more into the state building program. And we'll be part of a building pool in Salt Lake County, which will essentially assist the remnants of the former Jordan School District. You may recall that voters on the east side of that district voted to secede last fall. Now someone's got to help out the remaining west side, which will have a lot of growth but a substantially smaller tax base to handle it."

PATRONS: "Now hold on a moment. We have to pay for schools our children will never attend? Why can't growing school districts pay their own freight?"

SUPERINTENDENT: "That's right, we're expected to contribute to both funds. Some districts will benefit at others' expense. It's kind of like the debates that led to the split of the Jordan School District in the first place. East-siders didn't like paying for all those new schools needed on the growing west side when their schools were getting old and in need of replacement."

PATRONS: "Who came up with this idea?"

SUPERINTENDENT: "It was a legislative proposal."

PATRONS: "Hmmm. This would be the same Legislature with the revenue surplus, albeit not as large of a surplus as anticipated?"

SUPERINTENDENT: "Yes, one and the same."

PATRONS: "Why couldn't the surplus, which is largely income tax and earmarked for education, be used for such funds? Isn't that a better tack than pitting school districts and communities against one another?"

SUPERINTENDENT: "Yes, that would help to eliminate the turf battles."

PATRONS: "What do you think? Is this a bad idea?"

SUPERINTENDENT: "The intent is good. On a philosophical basis, we have an obligation to educate every child. That child deserves to go to school in a safe environment conducive to learning. But building schools costs a lot of money. Growing school districts need some sort of safety net. Besides, the vote to split Jordan School District put state lawmakers in the position that they had to act."

PATRONS: "But we don't live there and our taxes will go up as a result of a vote in which we had no say?"

SUPERINTENDENT: "I grant you, there's something undemocratic about how that occurred, although there's a pending legal challenge because people on the west side didn't get a say either. Now all we can do is figure out how to make the best of it."

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