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Show SCHOOLS OPEN SEPTEMBER 191 Work to be Condensed: Thruout County to Cut Cost of Operating,. The public schools of Iron county coun-ty will open Monday, September 19, to continue for a period of eight months. A statement of the requirements concerning attendance attend-ance of all children between the ages of six and eighteen years, as set forth in the new school law, will be published in a later issue of the county papers. We shall also publish a complete list of the teachers engaged for the different schools and a general statement of our aims and plans for the year's work. In this article it is our desire de-sire to review briefly the problems of the increasing cost of education and its relation to existing methods meth-ods of raising school funds. Also the cost of maintaining our schools will be compared with some of our other expenditures for the purpose of directing attention to places where retrenchment could be made and economy practiced, which, if carried out, would add to our resources re-sources and reduce our burdens without curtailing the educational oportunitics of our boys and girls. Owing to the large payments in interest and redemption on bomb to be met this year, nil actual increase in-crease of $17,000.00 over those of last year, it has been necessary to cut down considerably on the operating op-erating expenses of the schools. This has been accomplished by condensing the work thruout the district, giving teachers larger 'groups of pupils to handle and including in-cluding the third grade with the first and second grades on the half day program. By these means the teaching force has been reduced nine teachers and two supervisors, resulting in a reduction of from twelve to 'fifteen" thousand dollars in the salary budget alone. Other reductions have been made in the matter of supplies and equipment. Of course this means an almost unavoidable sacrifice of efficiency, yet, with the splendid teaching force engaged, we anticipate a very successful year and feel sure of a marked advance in the development of our schools along the lines of the new ideal of an American educational ed-ucational system that will develop and train our boys and girls into the highest type of efficient citizens citi-zens for rcnl self-government. All of us appreciate the fact that this is a year when our financial burdens are unusually heavy and especially do we feel the weight of our taxes. At such times it is natural na-tural to seek relief. The necessity of cutting down expenses directs our attention to the most conspicuous conspicu-ous public expenditures ; and as the maintenance of our schools hap' pens to be one of our largest bills, we s'traightway ask if there is any possible way of shaving it down. The question is being raised by some of our national leaders in education as to whether we can really afford a public school system sys-tem that provides free schooling including high school for all the children. Dr. Charles H. Judd of the Chicago University, in a recent article in Trained Men (Scranton), claims that we are not half paying our bills at the present time. Instead In-stead of spending $3,000,000,000 a year on education, which our school system now really requires, we arc only spending $1,200,000,-000 $1,200,000,-000 less than half enough to meet the needs. In an address before the superintendents' super-intendents' meeting of the N. E. A. last February, Dr. Sclegmann of Columbia university called attention atten-tion to urgent necessity of changing our methods of taxation, showing conclusively that to attemp to raise sufficient funds for our schools by a general property tax .placed too great a burden on the property holder. We must find ways of reaching the new forms of wealth and new sources of income, which now escape taxation, if we are going go-ing to equalize the burden and make it possible to raise sufficient funds to maintain our schools on an efficient basis. Until this is done, hoewver, the burden will remain re-main on the general property holder hold-er and the demand for a reduction of taxes will become more and I more insistent. M " Qn-thc-othcr"handFwc"nrenot"'- H ready to cut down the education- H al opportunities of our children. H We know that their training can- H not wait more than they can stop H growing. They are constantly seek- H ing new experiences, their minds M are craving food just as insistent- M ly as their bodies. If we fail to M furnish the right kind of cxper- H ienccs or to provide the proper M mental food they will surely find M substitutes, Their education simply M cannot be slighted or neglected M without serious danger to them. H Furthermore, when wq shtdy the I problem seriously, do we find it really necessary to cut down in ed- ucation? Is there' any foundation H for the cry that we can't afford our free public school system? Arc H we not, even now, paying for many H things that cost a great deal more H than our schools cost, and which H in place of benefiting us, arc act- H ually doing us harm? In 1920 we H spent in this county nearly twice as H much for tobacco alone than for H our entire educational system. Over two billions for tobacco, only a lit- H tie more than one billion for edu- H cation. H Our bill for luxuries absolute H non-essential things, is twenty-two H times as much as we spend for H our schools, including colleges and H universities. While principal of the H Davis County high school, our H former state superintendent, J. Leo H Muir, made an investigation whick H revealed the fact that the students H of that high school were spending H more for candy, soda water and ice cream each year than the total sal- H arics of the teachers in that school jH amounted to. H But ouu biggest burden today is H that of war past, present and fu- H ture. If one-half of our appropria- H tions for armaments were turned H into the school funds of the nation H we would hear no more whining H over the high cost of education. H And, with the funds we could de- H velop a school system that would H give a nation of real Americans. H Let us then, before we insist too H strongly on cutting down the cost H of education, begin to retrench H along the lines of our wasteful hab- M its and insane attempt to build the WM greatest navy, and armaments in the H world. The world is ready for M peace, if the politicians were out of the way, and the time is ripe for H the people to insist upon bringing H it about. H SUPT. H. CLAUDE LEWIS. |