President Emeritus James B. Conani he said last night that big city school disaffect should be divided into smaller separate districts with separate school board Rural districts "of insufficient size," he urged should be "consolidated."

This is necessary, Conant said, so that local boards may effectively exorcise responsibility for financing, selection of teachers, and adoption of textbooks and particular. He made his proposals in address before the National School board Association Convention in Boston.

A dozen or so boards," he said, "have responsibilities for so many people that to much proclaimed ideal of local responsibility is a myth." Conant suggested in states where there are one or more of such enormous districts, a state commission might be established to study the possibility of dividing the huge districts up.

"If this were to be done," he said, "the entire metropolitan area should be viewed and district lines drawn so that no local board would be serving a district with more than 500,000 or less than 35,000 in habitants."

A significant contribution to shaping a nationwide educational policy would be made, Conant said, "If a large number of local boards went out of existence as a consequence of district consolidation."

"The quality of American education depends on the quality of the teachers, and this in turn is a local responsibility," he said. But local boards must seek "guidance" from state and national authorities to provide "truly comprehensive schools."

He advocated an interstate planning commission to facilitate an exchange of information in the "three way partnership" between locality, state and nation