Seems like charter public schools were notably absent from this discussion. Too bad since they are controlled at the school level by a board of people interested in and committed to that individual school. Doesn't get any more local than that. That is the only real public education reform we have had in the last several decades. But then education wants reform that doesn't dilute the power of unions or threaten the establishment, so we really can't get reform from inside the educational system based on those two conditions.

Any teachers involved in this discussion?

The problem with education is we keep relying on school boards and state offices to solve the problems when most of those people haven't been in a classroom since they were students themselves.

Kim Burningham you are right on in this article! Keep it up!

Many of these things need to be addressed. Maybe school districts should be smaller, maybe not. The way the legislature addressed this has been a total disaster. They should cancel what they did and start over. Not letting everyone vote, trying to get to teams to agree, asking for money from SL, Murray and Granite which these residents didn't get to vote on either. Don't tell me they are our elected officials and they know best. They proved how wrong they are during the voucher fight. If all parents put as much time and energy into their local schools as they do into charter schools or fighting for school vouchers maybe just maybe they would be heard by their local school board. However until parents quit coming to school with the attitude that their child can do no wrong and help their children at home by reading etc. the system will never be fixed by anyone, or at anytime regardless how much money is thrown into the pot.