Rob's blog

The newspapers have reported that West Jordan is considering splitting off from the Jordan School District as is being considered by other cities in Jordan and Granite districts. Since it is up to the city council to determine whether the issue is to be placed on the November ballot, I want to document my position.

I believe the current system is broken. Extreme overcrowding of our schools, capital facilities construction and delays, busing and fiscal accountability are all of concern to me that our issues are not receiving appropriate attention. As for whether it is best to work within the existing system to fix it, exchange the existing system with one of our own making (forming our own), or looking at alternatives to the system itself (is there a more efficient form of "government" for school districts?), there are pluses and minuses for each. Here is how I look at the specifics of what is best for our citizens in deciding to put the question to them:

• fFrom the time we approved the study of this issue until we just received it has only been a few months. The east side schools have been studying the issue for more than a year and still have questions that have yet to be answered.
  
  
• There are technical problems with the legislation that will directly impact our forming of a school district -specifically, you can't form a district if you would leave "islands" of other districts within your new one. West Jordan would have this problem with both Granite and Murray districts. This is not an insurmountable problem, but it is a problem and will need to be addressed at some time.
  
  
• Property taxes are going to go up no matter what we or anyone on the other side of the valley does. The question is "what degree of increase will we accept for education?" Bonds must be approved by voters before any increases can happen, but not many parents on the west side would deny the fact that we need more schools. Overcrowding is beyond a problem; it is a nightmare. The more broken up the Jordan district becomes, the more the taxes will go up for those who remain. If the east breaks away, our taxes will go up a certain amount whether we form our own district or not. If we break away too, our taxes will go up, but the other west side cities will go up even more than ours. If I was one of those cities, I would be outraged that West Jordan is considering "sticking it to them" the same way we are reacting to the east side "sticking it to us." I just don't think it is fair and at the end of the day, while we are residents of West Jordan, we are all citizens of the same county, state and country. We should be in this together for our children's best good no matter where they live or what boundary they cross.
  
  
• No one knows how much it will really cost to split, start up a new school district, build new schools at an accelerated pace (than is currently the plan by JSD), and keep or improve programs in our schools that right now are only possible by the economy-of-scale that comes from being part of the largest school district in the state), etc. What programs would we lose if we split? How much would we have to pay through our property taxes if we don't just want the status quo, but want better for our kids. In some ways, the issue all comes down to economics.

I like the concept of having a school district of our own, but I am concerned that we have more questions and problems than we have answers at this point. I have every confidence in placing the issue before the voters for them to ultimately decide the question of whether to stay or form our own district, but I can't in good conscience ask them to decide that weighty issue when we can't even decide if we know enough to put it on the ballot at this point.

My position is that we need to continue to work on this issue. I want to give our legislators a chance to fix the holes in the legislation that has caused so much consternation over this issue, address the equalization of funding across the county or state that will allow for ALL of the children to get a fair and decent education and not just some areas getting preferential treatment (perceived or reality, that perception is there), and to give us a chance as those impacted by these decisions to lobby our state and school district representatives to get the change that we demand for our children's well-being.

At this time, I would not support putting this issue on the ballot for the voters of West Jordan to decide this year. We need answers to many questions and fixes to problems before the responsible citizens of this city are asked to decide an issue that will directly impact the quality and availablility of educational resources for generations to come. However, after sufficient time (I believe a year or less will yield the results I am looking for), I would be comfortable laying all the facts out for the citizens to vote on and work to help our government honor their decision and execute it to the best of its ability.