I have read S1068 with fear and trepidation. I can find nothing in the bill that might suggest a logical reason for “unifying” school districts. [Educators, Lawmakers Discuss District Size, Consolidation — Jan. 28, 2005]

Unification will only take power and control away from citizens. It certainly won’t improve the education of our children.

Consolidation of school districts may resolve a problem in Phoenix or Maricopa County, but it also will create bigger problems for the rest of Arizona at costs that greatly outweigh the little money that might be saved.

District consolidation based only on dollars and contrived numbers generated by an accountant is a bad idea. I do not believe you will find any statistical support for the premise that a huge, impersonal, politically motivated school district is more efficient or provides a better education than a small, community-controlled district with a distinct identity.

District consolidation will take a fundamental democratic unit — school-governing boards — away from locals. For example, Bonita Elementary School District has approximately 100 students. The district represents about 225 registered voters. What voice would we have in our school affairs if we were attached to a district with 6,000 students and 15,000 voters? The answer is simple — none!

What consolidation would mean to rural school districts is devastation. What it means to the larger districts is money.

In the Bonita School District is the EuroFresh greenhouse, a large agricultural enterprise that, according to the county tax assessor, will almost double the county’s tax base when completed. The larger districts do not see how they can help our 100 students; they see how they can increase their revenue by increasing the tax rate and their tax base, take the funds to their district and dole back a small portion to our school. This form of governmental policy is already hard at work in Graham County. The Bonita area generates much more tax revenue than we receive as a tax benefit. Our area can’t even get a refuse transfer station. We are good enough to tax, but not important enough to service.

As few legislators know, Phoenix and Maricopa County are a world apart from beautiful Bonita. We are a ranching/farming community with a school and a prison. We count on each other for help, because we can’t count on county or state government except to deny or cut services and raise taxes. If you take away our only democratic unit for control of our own destiny, what do we have left? A vote of 225 to 15,000 will sound no warning; we might just as well whisper into the wind.

If you want to help education and schools in Arizona, get rid of some of the mandated tests. —