The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1873-03-20

For the dnders6n IatslIgeneer. a,,il
The Free School System. "a !; -
MR.. EDITOR: have been watching thepro-.
ceedings of the last session of our Legislature,
hoping that some one would introduce an
amendment to the present Free School System,
but II am disappointed; therefore, will give 8
few thoughts in that direction, which you may
Mace in the columns Of your valuable weekly
You must not suppose that have fallen ont 1'1
with the free school system, as o whole itopt
having had some experience, as ssTrustee, IN
its workings, 7 think It might be improved in n
the facilities of its working made more pra@c- @ J;
cal and congenient, and so amended as to save
atleast half hetrouble thatlit now takes to
secure the benefits of that law. ~ will set forth
two prominent evils and their remedies, -. =,
First The School Districts are too large in
territory, so that all the children in q district
cannot be educated at the same school; and if
we should get good school with good Teach s ii
er anywhere about the centre Of the district,
necessarily other schools around on the border
will spring up, with small numbers and inferior
Teachers, which has tendency to break down
the good school. Consequently, all the good
Teachers. in our County will have to abandon
the business ofrteaehing, leaving the. field Ito
one-horse teachers with one-horse schools. i
Second. The present size of the School Dis
tricts as above stated necessitates the springing
up of schools all around the border Of the dis
tricts, making their school from different
School Districts sometimes from three-which
subjects the Teachers, the Trustees and County
School Commissioner to just three times the
amount of. trouble that should be to secure the
public funds. t;l.,9 - ~ - a,lf
To illustrate: In certain School District
last year they had five schools for the whites.
Only two were whole schools-the other three
we're fractional. The Teachers were subjected
to the trouble Of naking out isome of them)
three different regular monthly reports, and
present them to three different Boards of Trqs-
tees, and the TrusteesandSoheol Commissioner
had Just three dimes the &ronhle TO secure the
public funds that should be. .1e,r =
Again. Two ladies were teaching in an ad-.
Joining School District, and had one family of
children from our District. Well, the Teachers
had to take the trouble to make out monthly
report every month for just that family-send
them to our Board of Trustees-the Trustees
had to approve each FepofEpay orders had to
be issued in duplicate, and, Mr.. Editor, one Of
their pay orders amounted to one dollar and
eighty cents. Not worth the trouble it took to
secure it. -. t-.o
Well, to obviate the two evils above set forth,
propose to reduce the size Of the. School Dis
tricts 10 FIVE miles square; place one school
near the centre, which would be in reach OF
all the children in. the District, and not allow
any to send to school across the lines, for
it would be nearer to. his own; and if any
one did send across the lines, he should be de-
prived of the benefit. of the public funds.
Then we would always have a good school in
each .District and consequently have, good
Teachers. 3 Ss@4-$ 9SzFSs
I cannot see but one objection to the pro-
posed change, and that is we would have to pay
q surveyor to re-suryey the County. Well,
that would be small tax in comparison to the
benefits derived, and it would be only an in
crease Of the County tax for one year. Il think
it would be much better to pay such tax than
TO let the whole school system break down with
its own working; and according TO the present
School Act the School Commissioner has the
power to have the County re-suryeyed into int,
School Districts of any size.l i, as..s s.re go
But, Mr.. Editor, think tie Free School Act
should be SO amended as to entirely supersede
the necessity of the Office of County School
Commissioner, save. to the School fund the
Commissioners salary, by having q uusasu-
rer for each School District, elected by the
citizens of the sane, with the power to collect
che poll tax and the tax levied by the School
District meetings for school purposes; and
when the County Treasurer receives the pro
rata of the State appropriation for school pur-
poses, he should make the division and pay
over to the School District Treasures, accord
ing to the number of children in each district,
and take areceipt forthe same The District
Treasurer should give bond and security to the
Trustees for his faithful performance of duty,
and per cent. should be allowed him for col,
lection of tax and paying out to Teachers, the
same that is now allowed to the County Treas