Shortchanging Public Education Is Crime Against Children, April 9, 1920

From the April 9, 1920, editorial page of the Hertford County Herald, published every Friday by J. Roy Parker, editor, and Jas. S. Vinson, manager, Ahoskie, N.C.

For a Billionaire State

Manifestly, the teachers in the elementary public schools of our State are turned out to grace on many short commons.

As a result two-thirds of our public school teachers last year abandoned teaching, and two-thirds of our public schools are this year taught by raw recruits.

No wonder 700 of our common school rooms are closed. And no wonder 7,000, or nearly half of our common schools, are in the hands of sub-standard teachers taken temporarily in the emergency.

It’s a crime against the children of North Carolina.

If the public conscience will submit to this condition of things without any protest, then our rich state is hard-hearted and tight-fisted beyond words.

If we cannot or will not rise to this emergency in North Carolina, then we may well doubt the kind of salvation that lies in wealth alone.

Our riches are greatly increased, but why set our hearts upon riches if our children’s minds are to be completely starved?