Inasmuch as a large part of the expense of public education is raised by state taxation, it ought to be but a few years until the county is adopted as the unit and children in the rural communities given as good schools as children in the towns and cities. The drift is in that direction now. It follows logically too that the state department of education will tighten its grip on the school system, as it ought to do, if the richer cities and counties are to contribute to the support of the poorer towns and counties. Those who receive help will be compelled to conform to required standards.
The chief objection to a countywide system, as the average citizen views it, is the expense. Thriving towns and cities do not mind paying for nine months schools, but the rural communities, with smaller resources, find so long a term a burden, even where the state, as is the case now, foots a large part of the bill.
But equal opportunities should be provided in rural and urban communities. By consolidating school districts, and replacing the two- and three-teacher school with five and six teachers, and by transporting pupils to school, the change could be made without great hardship. In this connection, it may be said that the citizen in town or country who does not visualize hard surface roads throughout the state in the next dozen years is the exception. This is taken for granted.
It may be found necessary to reduce the school term from nine to eight months in cities and raise it from six to eight months in the rural sections. The high school could run nine months, and should continue that long.
Although the county-wide system may be several years off, there is no reason for postponing the adoption of the township as a unit. Hickory township, with its manufacturers and agriculture, could easily become a unit. It ought to be made the unit soon.
From the editorial page of The Hickory Daily Record, Nov. 28, 1921
No comments:
Post a Comment