Reader comments
Musings on schools, lawmakers, faith

It's a shame that people on the east benches are unwilling to pay taxes to support their grandchildren's education on the west side. So much for the hearts of the fathers turning toward their children.

Actually, it sounds like the special session will deal with the "equalization" schemes not the actual splitting of the districts law. The fallacy is that this equalization is all that is needed to "fix" the funding problems in the proposed new and remaining districts. Actually the bigger problem is the operations budget which pays for the day to day operations of the district, including employees, utilities, etc. You might be able to build schools but you might not be able to staff or operate them. Or you will need to raise class sizes even more and cut programs to fund the operations. While focusing on the money, people are missing the damage that will be done to children.

or at least I will when I get them...

Get real! I don't want to help out others because I live east of the Jordan River? Seriously?!?

My issue is this, my kids sit in aging, hot, non-tech-enabled, and seismically questionable classrooms. The solution is to rebuild/refurbish them. The problem is all that money evaporates every year 'cause of cost overruns on new construction. Furthermore the Jordan Board is not inclined to "fix" then inequity anytime soon. In fact they're issueing almost $200 million in new bond funds that the East will pay 57% for, yet get ZERO out of. All while our kids sit and swelter.

Why doesn't someone from the West speak up about this type of inequity rather that complain don't get even more! For the amount of complaining coming from the SW corner of the valley you'd think they'd be happy to get rid of us for a mere sub-10% increase in their school tax bill (soon to be mitigated further by the legislature).

"Jordan Board is not inclined to fix the inequity anytime soon." What inequity are you talking about? Four of the seven JSD Board members represent the east side, even though only 40% of the students live there. This unequal representation has resulted in students who live on the west side languishing in overcrowded, year-round schools while east side students enjoy elementary schools of fewer than 500 students, traditional schedules and all kinds of "special" programs. All this to appease east side residents who want more, more, more, while the board gives the west side the bare bones minimum.

Evidently all the perks given to east-siders has still not been enough. You talk about complaining from the SW corner of the valley? All the wailing I hear blows in from the east.

And people wonder why we need vouchers? I think it was rude, dumb, innapropriate, and foolish for you to talk about Stephenson carrying a concealed weapon. Why he carries a concealed weapon is none of your business and especially nobody elses either. Maybe because nowhere is safe anymore?