Thanks to Jay Evensen for the well-reasoned and balanced column on smaller school districts (July 30). His analysis that creating smaller school districts is a form of school choice is dead on. My experience as the research director of the Utah Small Districts Coalition (although I speak for myself in this letter) has convinced me that the driving factor behind the push to partition Utah's largest districts is based primarily on a lack of constituent satisfaction and not on tax or financial issues. We all simply want better schools for our children — and our neighbor's children.
But bonding is not the only way to fund new schools. Utah is currently one of only two states in the nation that have prohibited the use of impact fees to fund new schools. Restoring the ability to impose impact fees on new residential development would provide a mechanism to completely eliminate the issue of "built-out" neighborhoods funding new schools in growing areas. It is a matter of control at a local level.
Tad Wimmer
West Valley City