New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-02-06
SHALL THE SCHOOLS BE CLOSED /?

The action of the Senate last Saturday
forces this question on the consideration
of our citizens In reducing the proposed
tax for the support of the public schools
from fve-sixteenths of one per cent, as
provided in the House bill, to one-siX-
teenth, there seems a design to embarrass
if not to destroy the public schools of New
Orleans. That such design should ex-
list in any intelligent mind, or that it should
find support from gentlemen heretofore
regarded as the champions Of public edu-
cation, is incredible; yet such must be the
effect of the amendment adopted, should
it be concurred in by the House.
A tax of one-sixteenth Of one per cent
will produce revenue of barely SIS, 900;
the Indebtedness of the School Board is
100000 therefore the amount provided
by such tax would leave debt of $50 900
unprovided for, with the schools to be con-
Quoted for eleven months of the year on
an exhausted treasury, so that, without
provision made from other sources, the
sole alternative will be the closing of the
schools
A leading contemporary in its yester-
days issue asserted that the object of the
House bill was to raise 100000 for the
payment of coal for the schools. We can
not suppose that the majority of the Sen
ate participated in that absurd belief, as
the object Of the biu-the support of the
public schools of New Orleans-was
clearly declared in its title, and we would
not do Senators the injustice of conjectur-
ing that they were so grossly ignorant of
the bill under consideration: yet, what
ever may have been the cause. the effect
of the amendment, if adhered to, will be
the same-the public schools of this city
must be closed for lack of funds to sup
port them.
Are our Senators willing to assume the
responsibility for this: Do not they
more sternly and persistently pressed than
another by the Republicans of Louisiana,
it is the demand for public school system
which shall supply the benefits of educa-
ton to every child in the commonwealth ?
By the white man and the colored man
alike, it is claimed as a right of which they
will not be defrauded, and the intelligence
of an injured people will scatter like chat
every subterfuge offered to shield those by
whose acts that right shall be denied or
restricted.
The board of school directors for this
city have struggled bravely to maintain
the schools OF New Orleans during the
past year. and they deserve the commenda-
ton of the community for the courage
and intelligence they have displayed. The
teachers of those schools have borne up
nobly under the embarassments that have
constantly beset them. With four months
salary unpaid, often compelled to pledge
their certificates of Indebtedness to pro-
cure the means of support, they yet have
toiled on patiently and willingly, cheering
each other at their tasks by the prediction
of "a better time coming" To the present
meeting of the Legislature the directors
and teachers alike have looked as the time
when the needed relief would be fur
nished. They lave trusted to the in
tegrity, the intelligence and the patriot
ism of a Republican General Assembly to
recognize their claims. We do not believe
they will be disappointed. But should an
empty cup be placed to lips already
parched by suffering, the mockery will
not 60 unrequited. The closing of the
public schools of New Orleans, through
the acts of Republican Legislature,
would be the political suicide of every
participant in the crime.