The Grand Haven news. [volume] (Grand Haven, Mich.) 1858-18??, 1859-01-12
Grand Haven, = Michan.
WEDNESDAY EVENING, JAN. l2, 1859
OUGHT THE RATE.BILL SYSTEM TO
BE ABOLISHED

conducting our schools should be abolish
ed, and the free school system introduced,
that the Rate-Bill system is most
formidable barrier TO universal education.
We now proceed to show that the free
school system, so called, is the most eco
nomical.
BY the free school system we mean that
a sufficiency should be assessed upon the
taxable property of each school district,
in connection with the primary school
fund, to pay the wages of teachers neces-
sarily employed in the education of pu-
pills in such school district. But opposi-
ton to this plan at once meets us. The
idea Of tax at any time, even for pur-
poses the most laudable, fills the mind of
the great majority of those so unfortu-
nate as to be possessors of property with
any other than pleasurable emotions
And then to pay tax assessed for the
education of other peoples children is pre-
posterous, unjust, insuferable.
Let us look at this matter of taxation
little more closely. Pay tax we must,
either for the detection and punishment
of crime or for the promotion of educa-
ton and virtue among the people. Now
which can we do with the better grace,
and with the most happy RESULT Let
us figure little. The county of Ottawa
pays tax of eight thousand dollars of
which each township contributes its quo
Ia. We suppose four thousand dollars
of this is devoted to the detection aud
punishment of crime, which would not
exist to any great extent, if proper cd
ucational system prevailed. This amount
divided among the several townships of
this county would give each, in the aver
age, two hundred dollars for educational
purposes, instead Of its being used as now
in paying Prosecuting Attorneys, Justices
of the Peace and Constables, in meeting
out to criminals the just award of their
evil deeds.
Let this constitute common fund from
which each school district in the several
townships shall draw in proportion to the
number Of scholars therein, between the
ages Of four and eighteen years. Now
this much is clear gain toward our free
schools and no ertra tar. Having here
tofore divided each township into four
school districts, giving each district nine
sections of land, as contemplated by the
law regulating primary schools, and hay
ING built comfortable school-house-one
suited TO the wants of each community
directly in the central point of said sec
tons, or as near thereto as may be, so that
no scholar shall reside at o greater dis
lance than one and half miles from the
school-house, we proceed TO make arrange
ments for q school. We ascertain that
we need good school for eight months
during the year, at a cost of two hundred
and fifty dollars, employing a female
teacher for the four months constituting
the summer term, and a male teacher du-
ring the winter term-teachers of morals
as well as science. Toward this amount
we have of the common fund fifty dol
lars; mill tax, twenty-five dollars; prima-
ry school fund, twenty-five dollars-with-
out any additional taxation-ior our
school. Now to make up the deficit we
must raise one hundred and fifty dollars.
We have twenty-five thousand dollars
taxable property upon which to assess
this amount. This gives us tax of six
mills on dollar. We have in our school
district twenty families with an aggregate
of fifty children of suitable age TO attend
school, each householder possessing taxa
bic property TO the amount Of one thous-
and dollars in the average; this at six
mills on the dollar, gives us assets to the
amount of one hundred and twenty dol
lars; we have left five thousand dollars of
nonresident property TO be taxed, which
at the rate above specified, gives us thirty