Rob's blog

In this last article on my decision to place the question of should West Jordan split from the Jordan School district on the ballot, I want to ask the concerned parent, tax-payer or citizen the following question:

What is best for the children?

In the final analysis, this is the most important question of all. And it can't be usurped to say "what is best for MY children" or "what is best for my neighborhood's children." It must be "what is best for ALL of the children?" It seems in our rush to split the child as in Solomon's day, we have forgotten this most important question. Tax rates, big district versus small district control, etc. are all just secondary to that.

So, why do I think allowing the voters of West Jordan to weigh in on this in November is in the best interest of the children?

I wish I had all of the answers to that would give me confidence in declaring that for sure, taking this course of action will be most beneficial to the children. But no one knows the answers at this point. The east side schools have been studying this issue for over a year and they don't have all the answers yet. The legislature doesn't have the answers. They haven't even given us a blueprint that shows exactly what will happen and when in a timeline from when a group decides to break away and form their own district. The skeleton is there, but there is no meat on the bones.

How much will it cost? Who has that answer when something like this hasn't been done before? How much will administration costs change if smaller districts are formed? Will there duplication of positions, offices and programs? Certainly, we assume there must be. But to what degree? Will having a West Jordan School District reduce our tax burden? Heavens no! There is no question that our taxes are going up whether we stay in JSD or form our own - the question is only "to what degree." Current estimates whether we stay or create a new district are anywhere between 10-25% increase in the school portion of our property tax. Either way, we are going to see a significant increase and there isn't anything we can do about it other than shipping our kids off to some other state and letting them educate the kids (not a good option in my opinion!)

So what in the final analysis made me decide to put this on the ballot and not put it off for a year or more until we have more answers?

• First, the legislature has demonstrated a decided preference for whatever works for the east side is what they will do. It is not inconceivable that after the process has started and been completed by the east side cities that the legislature says, "oops, we made a mistake. This isn't really such a good idea, so we'll take it off the table as an option." Thus the east side gets their district, as they wanted, and should anyone else want to pursue it, it may not be "prudent" as judged by some. Why do I have such a decidedly calloused opinion of the legislature? Please read Part 1 of this series just for the tip of the iceberg for me. However good their intentions may be, I do not believe based on the evidence I have seen that those currently in office and in the majority position in on this issue are acting in the best interest of ALL of the children (or the state).

• Second, the Jordan School District, for all the fine programs they provide, good teachers who give their all to our students, and academic achievement in the state are not accountable to the citizens. They flaunt the open meetings act, show an amazing disconnect with the average person by the pay raise fiasco, have so many areas to focus on (right now, east and west of the SL valley), that any particular area, even one in serious need, appears to get lost in the clutter. Will that change if we have our own school district? Perhaps. Perhaps not. But if it does, we at least will have 7 school board members who all come from the same community rather than having to look after disparate populations and geographical locations all over the valley. If elected at large instead or combined with districts, as the current West Jordan City Council is, ties to a specific part of the city can be minimized and more over-all accountability to the city as a whole can be the result. In the end, it will be up to the voters to decide in either case (to form a new district and who to vote for/retain when a school board is put together). Can we attract better teachers if we decide to pay more than the average in JSD? That is a possibility worth considering. There are many factors involved, which lead me to my last point.

• Third, I trust the voters of West Jordan to think ahead and predict which outcome will be best for the education of their's and future children. They may not have all the answers. We don't know all of the costs in both people and money. We don't know if sticking with the "mother district" is better than forming our own. But thought to compare our situation to a group of early Americans who contemplated a separation must bolder and serious, but similar nonetheless. They didn't know the costs or the after effects of a separation from Great Brittain or all the reprocussions of setting up their own government. They made some mistakes. They also, over time, made one of the greatest contributions to the human condition that has been seen in world history. They didn't have all the answers, but they knew they wanted the freedom to determine their own destiny without having to rely on someone far from them making those decisions about them or without them with no say in the outcome. This kind of leap of faith may ultimately be best for us or not, but I belive in the end, it will be what WE make of it.

I believe in more accountability to the people, and while economies of scale can help a school district or large company operate; something you lose from the old ma and pa stores or small country schools is an attention to detail and focus on the individual. We are not looked at as just a number or a customer among a mass of people - each child on a class roll or each family on the tax rolls represents hard-working people who have needs and wants and dreams and should be treated fairly and allow each child to fairly reach their potential no matter where they live or how rich their neighborhood is.

I decided to place the issue before the voters of West Jordan because I think that even not knowing all of the financial, procedural and economic answers, they can decide now on the issue of whether they think having a school board consisting of solely their own residents or mixed with those of farther flung communities is a better idea. Can we keep the programs that JSD offers? There is no reason why we should not be able to. Either through the taxing process or interlocal agreements with other districts, ways can be found to do ANYTHING we as a community want - we just can't do EVERYTHING that we want.

Can we do a better job than JSD at building schools to keep up with growth? I think the answer on this is a decided YES because we do not rely on others "looking out for their own turf" to compete with the scarce resources that must be shared around a very large district. Will we have to pay more for it? We very possibly will. That ultimately is the question each voter will have to ask him or herself - what cost am I willing to bear to educate the next generation? If the answer is that we are already paying too much for education, then we need to 1) reduce the number of children who require resources to be educated (not very likely), 2) reduce costs (possible in some areas, but this little concept called "inflation" pretty much guarantees that costs will ALWAYS go up, not go down), 3) find a way to shift more of the tax burden to those who contribute more to the situation (i.e. have more children) than from those who don't (has been tried, not a lot of support for it, considered "anti-family"). So what are we left with? If equalization does not succeed either on a county or a state-wide basis, then we will HAVE to just face up to the fact that we need to pay more when more where education is concerned while still working on new, intelligent ways to do more with what we have or what we can get through cooperation. 

So, there you have it. If you have read this far, please contact me personally. I will personally buy anyone in this city who verifies to me that they have read this entire series of articles an ice cream cone at Arctic Circle for your diligence - no city funds will be expended! I can't offer all the answers, and I am not trying to minimize the seriousness of the issues at stake, but at least we can talk face to face over an ice cream cone and put our minds together on finding solutions for what matters most:

the children.