The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1874-05-24
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN LOUISIANA.
THE ANNUAL REPORT.

| THE ANNUAL REPORT.
What strikes the reader most forcibly, il
looking through this voluminous document
is the unnecessary and enormous expense
which must have been incurred IN putting
it in print. No less than one hundred and
fifty pages are occupied by statistical tables
(many OF which abound in empty columns)
which, with proper discrimination and
diligence, might and should have been
compressed into one-fifth of that mum
ber-for summaries are all that the pub
lie ever read; questions, now obsolete,
proposed to applicants for teacherships,
and proceedings Of the Estate Board OF
Education" IN which the public have no in
terest whatever, also figure largely; and
repetitions, most unnecessary, cucumber the
text and render it Herculean task TO wade
through the platitudes of the officials who,
without a shadow of authority from the
people, have for the past year been exercis-
ing the control Of public education in this
foully wronged State.
1t is obvious that the report was COM
piled mainly to provide a lucrative job for
the State Printer, and to magnify, in aspect
at least, the labors of the usurping State
Superintendent and his compeers of the
estate Board Of Education" This animus
| is unblushingly revealed in the following
sapient p0an extracted from the report.
"All honor and praise to these officers
(the Division SUPPLEMENTARY! Would
that we had more of them, and we soon ciU
have; for it needs but five or six years more
of labor like that performed i'll this State
during the past three years; then our own
schools will have developed them"
This astonishing process of incubation,
on which the authorof the report SO ingeuu-
ously relies for the production of an army
of salaried assistant superintendent (at the
expense of the school fund), is an expedient
worthy Of officials who owe to shameless
midnight coup Tetat their existence and
emOluments; but the allusiOn to labors Of
the past three years can hardly be deemed
complimentary, as the report elsewhere
shows that, during such time, many Of the
officials have been more prominent for mis-
appropriations or embezzlements of the
public school funds than for attention to
the schools in which the ora of future su
perintendents are to be developed. Fraud
being the basis Of all Radical power in this
State, we cannot err in inferrlng that the
author of the report before us deems the
amor sceleratus habenG an essential charac-
teristic Of the labors of Radical superintend-
ents and treasurers Of public education.
In previous issues of this paper We have
already shown how enormous an amount
has been distracted, yearly, from the school
fund for the support of the Estate Board Of
Education" Ito the detriment of the unpaid
teachers Of the public schools); and taxpay-
ers can readily foresee to what extent the
realization of the prediction and the inor-
dinate desires Of the usurping State Super
intendent would burden their property, for
the support Of a raveneus horde of school
officials.
Having examined, with as much dis
elimination as possible, the confused and
incomplete statistics in the annual report,
we find the following data (Which we have
condemned for the information Of the pub
lic), in reference to the schools in the city
of New Orleans:
There are reported as having been in
operation during the year 1873 three public
high schools, in charge of II teachers, with
SIG enrolled pupils and daily average at
tendance Of 445 scholars and seventy public
elementary schools, in charge Of 399 teach
ers, with 1871 enrolled pupils, and daily
average attendance Of 1888 scholars.
The annual salaries Of the II high school
teachers (if fully paidD aggregated $2s, ass
and the three high schools, including sala-
ries, rents and incidentals, must have cost,
for the year, fully $4,000.
In the 70 elementary schools, the compen-
sation of the 399 teachers (averaging about |
s72 IS per month each, aggregated 345 ,4O3;
and the cost Of maintaining such schools,
the amounts due to teachers for
the last quarter of 1873, cannot have been
less than $545, 200.
No well-informed citizen of New Orleans
who knows anything of the history of pub
lie education in the city, can deem the ele-
mentary public schools Of the present day
equal, in efficiency and popularity, to those
in operation from 1865 to 1862, and from
1865 to 1869, under the control of the city
authorities, and under the immediate man
agement of enlightened directors and super
ntendents who were worthy of the conf
lence of the people. Yet the present de-
graded system is much more expensive than
the older and more acceptable one; for the
average cost per pupil has risen from SIS to /
At least $50, exclusive Of the cost Of text
books, which parents noW hare to supply at
their orn expense; and the extravaganza
amount required at that rate for the support
Of the present system is exacted from prop
erty owners at period when most of them
cannot, without sacrifice Of their property,
meet the onerous taxation imposed upon
Them by an illegal and INSCRIPTIONS State