The Lincoln Board of Education already has received plenty of criticism for considering closure of Dawes Middle School and Hawthorne Elementary School.

But it ought to get credit for putting the proposal on the table.

The school board has the responsibility for overseeing the public education of the community’s children.

It also has a responsibility to taxpayers to provide that education efficiently.

No school board can accomplish the second goal unless it is willing to consider hard choices it knows will be unpopular with at least a segment of the community.

The board had ample reason to take a hard look at the possible closing of the two schools.

For years, the attendance at Dawes Middle School has been boosted by children bused several miles from the Lincoln Air Park area. The long ride — an hour each way for some students — was necessary because Goodrich Middle School, which is closer, is over capacity.

The need for that long ride, which costs the district $164,000 a year, will finally end when Schoo Middle School is opened in 2009-10 to serve the growing neighborhoods in northwest Lincoln.

When that happens, enrollment at Dawes will drop to around 300. That means that providing standard middle school programs will be more expensive on a per-student basis.

Meanwhile, Hawthorne Elementary School is serving only around 70 children from the neighborhood. Its enrollment has been boosted by attendance of more than 100 English language learners.

Those factors may not, in the end, prove sufficient to justify closing the schools. There are other ripple effects to be considered. The proposed closings are part of the district-wide redrawing of attendance boundaries. About half the elementary and middle schools in the district will see changes under the proposals.

If the two schools are closed, efficiency at other schools will be affected. There is the question of whether the district can, or should, make use of the Hawthorne and Dawes buildings for other programs. There are also questions about future growth. Would closing Dawes leave northeast Lincoln without enough classrooms as that part of the city grows?

As it should, the Lincoln Board of Education is conducting its decision-making out in the open and providing opportunities for parents and others to make their views known.

To properly do its job, the school board must thoroughly examine possibilities that it knows will be controversial. And ultimately it should not shy away from making unpopular decisions that will be in the best interests of the district as a whole.