Middletown transcript., 1869-01-09
Free scheels IN Delaware.

It is not q matter of much moment if
"outsiders" and namby- -pamby philan-
thropists from New York and Pennsylva-
MIA, who decry our criminal code, should
assert that we have no "free schols," but
when our own newspapers publish the same
thing, and from their presumed knowledge,
give the statement an air Of truth, it is i'm
portant that the facts should be known.
The truth is that we have had free
school system since 1906; or, to speak
more correctly, probably, in that year an
act was passed by the Legislature creating
a fund for establishing schools in the State:
and the money arising from marriage and
tavern licenses was solemnly appropriated
as "part of fnnd hereafter to be applied
under the direction of the legislature for
establishing schools in this State" The
money TINS arising was SO applied (and is
stilD, and though it is probable that down
to 1920, neither the schools or the fund
amounted to much; yet from about that
time to this, our Legislature has, by aot af-
ter act, fostered, protected, and matured
our free school systemi the school fund
under this fostering care and by appropri-
ations directly made has grown to between
six and seven hundred thousand dollars: !:
we have school houses all over our State,
and we have an attendance of between
eighteen and nineteen thousand scholars
Let us give the school fund, and few
facts from the Audltor's Report. By law
the school funds consists of
| 7,439 shares of the Farmers Bank,
$90.793,83 loan to p. W. & b. r. r.
$4,000 loan to Sussex county,
5000 New Castle & Will r. II. Stock,
81 shares Bank of Delaware,
ia shares Bank of Smyrna,
1877 shares Union Bank.
Fees on marriage and tavern licenses,
&c.
By the Auditors Report this fund pro-
duced last year (1867), $41, ,412,37, of
which sum $37, ZOO, so was distributed by
the State Treasurer, as Trustee of the
school fund, to the different school dis
tricts, for the support of schools, as fol-
lows:
To districts in New Castle Co. $1S, 1884, ,25
To districts in Kent county,. 10,818,6S
To districts in Sussex county. 13,047 81
But in addition there was raised by con-
tribution and taxation, $72, DAT ,08. viz ;
In New Castle county..........$47 $3.50, OF
In Kent County. l7,737 "a
In Sussex County 1892
Thus there was given in 1867 fund Of
about $110. 100000 70 the support of the
Free Schools of our State.
Now, as to the scholars In attendance
upon the schools. By the same report we
find there attended
In New Castle County, in the
year 1867. 67..................6,45 ,451 scholars.
In Kent County...........".4,ooO ooO
In Sussex County. ,3l5
Making grand total Of 1885 children
who are gratuitously schooled-one sew
enth of our whole population. Gan any
State in proportion to population do much
better, either for amount of money donat-
I'd, or for scholars in attendance? What
soicked folly it is then to publish that there
are no free schools in Delaware.
If the authors of this slander however,
meant to say, that there was not as much
education as there ought to be in our State
we would agree with them. There is moi
in any portion of our whole country as
much as there ought to be. We can truly
say of the education of our people, as DR..
Alexander said of his religion, ''He had
not enough to brag Of" This is partly
owing to our American character, and
partly to the inherent faults of our school
system. We will not keep our children at
school long enough to be even QualifedlD
educated AS soon as we can get certain
articles of linen off of them, they must ims-
mediately, !! not sooner, be preachers, or
doctors, or lawyers, or merchants, or me-
chanics, or something for which they are
peculiarly unfit. And then there is un.
doubtedly the objection to the public schoo
system, that most parents think it is the
States business, as Il furnishes the funds
and the teachers, to see to it that the chill
dren are properly taught. They will not
at least they do not give that parental over
sight which is necessary to the proper i'm
provement of the child. This may not b,
the fault of the system, but it is one of its
results. But our object was not to criti
else the system, but to prove that we hat
it. And we submit, "Have we not Ere,
Schools in Delaware ?"-Journal d; States
man.