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Show HALF-DAY SCHOOL IN CONFLICT WITH STATE LAW Editor Standard: According to published pub-lished reports of a meeting held at the Five Points school Thursday, at which Superintendent Mills discussed the proposed plan for half-day attendance attend-ance in the schools, after declaring that there was no Intention of excluding exclud-ing any child from school without the consent of the parents, Mr Mills stated stat-ed that the plan would be adopted and that "such pupils as remained in the full day would BE TAKE CARE of the half day in the study hall, play room or manual training." This Is very different from the way the matter mat-ter was stated by Professor Peterson on last Sunday evening. The report further says: "MR. MILLS DID NOT REPLY DIRECTLY DI-RECTLY TO THE QUESTION'S AS TO WHETHER HE PROPOSED TO SUBMIT THE MATTER TO A VOTE I OF THE PEOPLE." If Mr. Mills is correctly reported, two things are apparent. First: There is to be an attempt to put this half-day half-day plan in operation regardless of the wishes of n majority of the parents. par-ents. Second: Notwithstanding the statement that no child is to be excluded ex-cluded from the schools without the , consent of Its parents, the statomcnt i that "such pupils as remained in the! full day would be TAKEN CARE OF) the half day in the study hall, play room or manual training, " clearly indicates in-dicates that the children are not to have the privilege of a full day in school, but that they will have the privilege of a half day in school and1 that those whose parents want them to remain all day will be allowed to I rpmain somewhere about the building build-ing and "BE TAKEN CARE OP" RI the half day they are not in school. This would he denying to the pupils , an opportunity of enjoying all the privileges of the school. The laws of this state declare that the public schools 'SHALL BE FREE TO ALL CHILDREN BETWEEN THE AGES OF 6 AND 16 YEARS." And by the laws of the state a sclvol week is defined to he five days and a school mouth is defined to be twenty days. This does not mean half days. And If the schools are to be free to all children within the ages namea they must be free during all of the time each day that the schools are in session, and not only half the time I I do not believe that either the superintendent su-perintendent or the board of education educa-tion has any authority to exclude any child within the apes named from any of the privileges of school during any portion of the time the school is in session If I had a child entitled to attend the public schools and desired that he should attend I would certainly certain-ly send him, and, if there should be anv attempt to exclude him from school during any portion of the school day would test the matter In the courts. The law of this state requires that each district in order to participate in the distribution of the state school funds, shall maintain a public school for a certalu number "f weeks of five day s i not half-days each. It may well be questioned whether these pro posed hall-day sessions would be deemed such a compliance with the law as would entitle the city to a portion por-tion of the state school fund. In attempting at-tempting this innovation we might sustain a loss of the proportion of this fund to which we would otherwise be entitled. In addition to this we have a com pulsory education law, that requires every parent, guardian or other per son having control of any child between be-tween 8 and 16 years of age. to send such child to a public, district or private pri-vate school in the district in which he resides, for a certain number of weeks each year, and making the failure fail-ure to do a misdemeanor. There is a proviso in the law that such parent guardian or other person having control con-trol of such child shall be excused from such duty by the board of education edu-cation (not by the superintendent r principal) whenever it is shown that one of the following reasons exists "1. That such child is taught at home in the branches prescribed b law lor the same length of time as children are required bv law to be taught in the district school. "2. That such child ha3 already acquired ac-quired the branches of learning taught in the district schools. !?a That such child is in such physical phy-sical or mental condition I which maybe may-be certified by a competent physician if required by the board) as to render such attendance inexpedient or Impracticable Im-practicable It' no such school is taught the requisite loneth of time within two and one-half miles of the residence of the child by the nearest ro;id, such attendance shall not be enforced. "4. That such child Is attending some public, Jistrict or private school "5. That the services of such child are necessary to the support of a mother or an invalid father." Upon no other grounds than tho-e stated above can a parent or guardian be excused for not sending the child to school Does any one suppose that if a parent should send his children for a half day only and keep them out of school half of each school dav that he would be guilty of a violation of this statute0 May the superintendent or board of education do that which. If done by a parent or guardian, would be a misdemeanor0 In the discussion of this question why not hold public meetings where the opponents of the proposed plan may have equal opportunity with its advocates, to present their views. Up to the present time no fair opportunity opportun-ity has been given the opponents of the plan to present their side of tne question. I venture that if the matter is fully and fairlv presented, SO per cent of the parents of the city will be found to be opposed to this plan or a half day in school, and a half day in the stuJy hall, playroom or manual training, where the children are merely mere-ly "taken care of." The object of the compulsory education law is to compel the education of the children. not merely to "fake care of them." fl Rospectfullv. (Signed ) a W. AGEE. |