Taxpayers in the Madison School District should demand that the School Board be smarter about managing the district's money and resources.
On Tuesday's ballot is a school referendum containing three smart proposals.
That's why the referendum deserves voters' support.
More important than the referendum, however, is what happens next. The School Board is confronting difficult choices, including how to respond to rapid growth in areas where there are no schools while in other parts of the city, schools have excess space.
A pivotal question in upcoming months will be: Does the board have the courage to close a school? While the rapidly growing Far West Side merits a new school, other parts of Madison are experiencing declining student populations.
Taxpayers can't afford to build schools where the children are while maintaining schools where the children aren't.
At least one school should eventually be closed and sold, with boundary changes to distribute children to other schools.