Many seem to believe that the capital funding is the only problem in splitting Granite School District. It is not! With the current proposals, Granite gets no help from the equalization schemes. In fact, they lose money.

Regardless, the key is operations money. This is the lion's share of the school district budget and pays for the day to day operations, like payroll, utilities, supplies, etc. This is the money that would be hurt by a district split. The feasibility study for Granite say that the new east side district would start $1 MILLION dollars in the red. Programs would need to be cut and class size would need to be increased to balance the budget. The remaining district would be in even worse shape. They would need to raise taxes but can't because of the statutory limitations.

These issues can't be solved by tinkering with islands and connectine corridors. In Granite's case it just shows how desparate certain groups are to make this happen at all costs.