The New Orleans bulletin. [volume] (New Orleans [La.]) 1874-1876, 1875-04-30
COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.

COMPULSORY SCHOOL ATTENDANCE.
After the question of intermingling OF co..
ored and white children in our public scnoois
is finally quieted, as it will surely De ry 'ne
instincts of both races before the lapse O., D,
many years; after the expenses OF the scnoe
system are brought down to rational figures;
after the school tax ceases to be dispropof-
tionate charge upon the property OF tne o'a1e'
and after the proceeds of the tax begin to De
administered and handled by trustworthy
men who have the cause OF educauon al
heart az the best promoter OF clvl'lzatlon'
then the lovers of leaning in Louisiana will
be prepared to consider the propriely Of
adoptine some system by which educable
children shall be made to derive proper ben
efits from the public tax. For the time
being the question Of compulsory education
is in allegiance in Louisiana, for the reason
that the people who pay the school taxes find
themselves excluded from the administration
Of the funds contributed out Of their own
often scanty means. In Nav Orleans the
schools are managed with Partially and
caprice that are often extremely annoying to
teachers and parents, and outside Of the city
the workings Of tue system under Radical
colored sway prove it to be little better than
Q costly and monstrous farce.
The time will come, however, when those
who pay for our public schools will control
them and put q stop to the present abuses.
Then it will DO in order for the true people,
represented by their true Legislature, to con
slider and determine whether the State shall
furnish gratuitous tuition to those children
only who, in their own volition, choose to
avail themselves of this great favor, or shall
oblige all children between certain proper
ages to attend the public or other schools dur
ing certain specified period Of each year.
There is growing sentiment in other States
and in other countries that, in the matter of
education, the State ought to stand IN loco par
entis and shield the children of the Common
wealth alike against their own Incidence and
the folly Of their too indulgent, too fond, and
very weak fathers and mothers. In the inter-
ests of the State, to promote efficiency, to re-
press vice, to increase security, to avoid pau
perism and to diminish crime, modern States
in increasing numbers are adopting the COM
pulsory rule. II it is for the welfare of the
State that its inhabitants should be enlightend,
and if, therefore, it is right and necessary that
property shall be taxed to provide the means
of enlightenment, then it is urged that the
parents Of juvenile vagabonds should be COM
PEELED to send them to school in order that
the wise intent of the law may not be
thwarted. In other words, tho corrected SEN
timent of enlighted countries is adverse to the
raising Of idle male and female truants, when
means Of instruction ara amply provided at
public cost.
This is one of the questions which are
"looming up" and it is we'll enougheto begin
to consider it in all its bearings. Here in
New Orleans, where the schools ought to be
under the direct and exclusive control and
supervision of our city government, it is
question worthy Of public consideration and
earnest thought whether the people should
be heavily taxed for public schools, and yet
the children, for whose benefit they are kept
up, be allowed to absent themselves from
useful study and wholesome discipline while
engaged in vitiating sports and the mischief
always found :" for idle hands to do" eEduca-
ton does not sanctify or insure against vice,
but the illiterate man or woman is in far the
greater danger Of falling into vicious habits.
Where public schools are free the non'attend-
ance Of children Of the proper ages is an
evidence Of parental folly or juvenile vice, or
both, and both ought to be corrected BY those
Who have the well.being Of the Common
wealth in their keeping.