The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1870-04-21

I
as follows: to cities. towns and school dis
tricts, Sl.63S.0O0; TO counties S5S000; to tn
State, $4,000.
The fixed capital of the mafure9 system
OF the states included in the statistics of tn
National Bureau of Education apportioI
our school-houses and sites at a cost of thre'
millions. OF this the proportion chargea
Die TO the State amounts, at the pro rat,
given above, to $540.000. This sum contrib
uted by the State for the erection of schoo
houses would, if the whole work be not be
yond our present means accomplish tina
result by responsive effort on the part o
the several school-districts into which the
counties shall have been divided. And thu!
while the ordinary burden of the system
may be set down to the charge of the State
| at probably. little more than 100000
year. the burden on the State this year O.
the Initiation OF the system. would. if the
system were carried out TO the full extent
| fan but little short of a million.
The State supervision of the school-sys-
| TEN embraced by the statistics of the Ma
tlonal Bureau of Education aggregates q
cost of $l49,320. Averaging 4.4-lO cents pei
| scholar of the daily average attendance. thi:
would fix the cost OF the State supervision
in Mississippi at notwithstanding travel
| ing expenses. and salaries of both clerks and
state Superintendent. of $5,720 year.
The dimensions of the work before your
| honorable body in the establishment OF
| common schools, are great. $2,2j0.000 for
| ordinary expenses, and S3,000,000 for special
| expenses, represent an amount of taxation
/ from which you may very well shrink.
| And your prudence may feel all the more
| startled from going on at once into so enor-
nous an outlay, when you FecOllect that,
! hopeful though the prospects of the system
| are under the present condition of things
| in Mississippi, the common school system
has never yet succeeded in even 4 single
State of the South
The Common School Fund" provided in
the Constitution, cannot be at present real
lied to any very great extent. While the
convention of the fund is a work of time
it becomes very important to reflect how
far that consideration should govern the
rate ut which the common school system
ought TO be pressed on to its ultimate full
ness. With ll5576 polls last year, we can
estimate. readily, the amount that may be
raised by poll-taX. With taxable basis of
$ll4,l3l, LIS for last year, there can be no
difficulty in aDproXimating to the proceeds
of the general land tax, $32547 was the last
semi-annual appropriation for the interest
on the Chickasaw School Fund. So far we
can see our way to the question of ways and
means clearly; but beyond this all other
heads of income-licenceS, &c.-are outside
our knowledge. While, therefore, we 90
forward in the dark, let us go forward all
the more cautiously; and although coun-
ty of the State of New York-CayugA coun-
ty-has contributed to her schools $I,27 per
annum on every hundred dollars of her
taxable property, let us recollect that few.
if any, of the counties of Mississippi may be
willing to do so until they shall have moved
up to it, as the counties of New York have,
by slow and steady steps.
But we are pledged to give an opportuni-
ty OF schooling to every child i'm the State.
Our very good faith in the redemption of
that pledge should teach us caution. For
load the people at the outset with too great
a burden, and they will sink under the load
dispondingly. The failure that would fol-
Low, we must avoid if we are anxious to
make our pledge of education to every child.
good. Under all these views, | submit to
you that you set the system going first in
the cities, the towns, the more pOpulOus
districts; and that you await to watch the
result of your work before pressing it into
those parts of the State which are thinly
settled and so poor in resources as to con-
denim the system by its introduction into
those districts prematurely, to inevitable
failure.
But comparatively small moietv of the
OUTLAWS on common schools are derived
from the several states. The Board of Ed
ucation, representing the State, has conse-
quently. but limited claim upon the work
ing of the system. The local direction is,
therefore, made usually to rest with body
of men, chosen for the purpose, in each of
the school districts. In Pennsylvania that
board of Managers consists ofsiX directors"
As this system of management is, substan-
TALLY. that in general use, it may be well to
observe that those directors" are elected bV
the people of their school districts. They
receive no pay. They locate and build
school houses employ and dismiss teachers:
levy and collect school-taXes. They are, in
short, charged with all the powers Ofadmin-
istration necessary to keep the school in
operation under the healthy action OF local
interest.
But the question of local government of
public scools is complicated amongst Us by
preiuGices of race. To concIliate these. and
at the same time make the system of COM
mon schools operative, will require dispas-
sionate elaboration. Ny judgment is una
bic to say positively how this difficulty is to
be met most etfectually; but whether the
best means be by a mixed board of directors
for each district, or by distinct system of
distributing for each color, | have no doubt
the Legislature will bring to the subject that
earnest spirit of justice to both races which
demands that the schools themselves shall
be kept absolutely separate.
The directors" of each school district
select their own text books. The uniformi-
ty of text books which might appear at first
sight important, is not of sufficient concern.
in fact, to justify any invasion OF the prin-
ciple of district authority. There is no uni
formity of text books in New York, none in
Michigan, none in Massachusetts. none in a
large number of the States. Mr.. School
superintendent Wickersham in his report
for 1862 to the Legislature of Pennsylvan-
ia, asks on page 81: rs it our best policy
to attempt 10 bring about State uniformity,
county uniformity, or be satisfied with dis
trict uniformity? ?" For this State" SAYS
he, Il answer. without hesitation, that the
matter OF selecting school books should be
left where the law now leaves it, in the
hands of boards of directors of the several
districts" If only to avoid an unnecessary
exposure to the too ready spirit of impeach-
ing the purity of our administrative trusts,
recommend that we do not attempt an I'M
real advantage at the cost of exposing the
cause of public education to the suspicious
sure to follow the erection upon the system
of text book monopoly.
One text book, however, there is which
am anxious to see adopted in every public
school of the State-I mean the Holy Bible.
Strictly secular education may develOpe one
part of the mind. but il leaves to nature the
better, the nobler part. And while good
citizenship requires the quickeniEg of intel
ligence, we would make a dangerous mistake
by forgetting that it requires also something
eff the SOLDERING of the religious sense. The
vast majority of our people are Protestants,
and, as such, hold it . solemn duty to train
their children in the teachings of the word
of God. In my unwillingnesS to see them
deprived Of that precious privilege, L am re-
minded that they may be made to enjoy it
freely without wrong to any one; for in the
very few cases where the objection might
apply that the introduction of the Bible in
to the public schools would be an unwarrant-
able invasion of the rights of Catholic chill
dren, we can accommodate the difficulty.
While respecting the CONSCIENTIOUS scruples
of the Catholic parent, by releasing him, on
proper certificate, from any contribution to
the school tax.
"a Superintendent of Public Education
in each county, is provided for in the Con-
stitution. This officer" the text says,
shall be appointed;" but accompanying
that mandate is a context by which it is
set aside from the moment at which the
Legislature shall have made the Office cleo
tive.
The appointing power has been bestowed
so largely as it has in the Constitution as an
unavoidable necessity. Under ordinary cir
that wide beStoWal would have