The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1876-05-26
For The Egis d. Mtelligenccr.
VT IIFo tC IHteFVtYeFrVtI'
Comparative Cost OF the Graded School.

comparative COSt OF The Graded school.
The editor of the Hartford Democrat of last |
week, in defending that policy of the School |
Commissioners by which the Graded School !
of Bel Air is kept open four full terms, while |
the rural schools" as they are termed, are
only kept open three terms every year, has
fallen into several very grave errors.
In the first place he criticiZes with mild
sarcasm the resolutions of the Deer Creek
Farmers Club, requesting the suspension
of the Bel Air Graded School, and intimates
that the intelligent farmers who compose
that club are better posted on farming than
they are on the conduct of public schools.
| The members of the Deer Creek Farmers
Club, Mr.. Editor, are not so ignorant of even
public school affairs, as the editor of the
Democrat may suppose. Although many of
them have not enjoyed the advantage of
graded and high schools, supported Mt the
public expense, they nevertheless have
knowledge of one fact mt least, and that is,
that the support of the public schools is dai
ly growing more and more burdensome,
without q corresponding advantage in afford
| ing our children II better education than
their fathers obtained in the old log school
houses of twenty-five years ago. The far
mers of the county may DC dull lot, as COM
pared with the editorial fraternity, and |
must confess they do not possess sufficient
degree of acumen to discover exactly upon
what principle our public schools are con-
Quoted
The editor of the Democrat argues that in
as much as Bel Air and its surrounding
neighborhood pays so large an amount of
the school tax, it is entitled to larger pro-
portion of the school fund than any other
school district of the county. This, Mr. Ed
| ltor, Is surely very strange argument for
the editor OF Democratic paper to advance
1t has been our boast that the public school
system was instituted for the purpose of at
fordng to every child, no matter how poor,
an education sufficient to fit him or her TO
successfully fight the battle of life, and be-
come good and useful citizen. Carry out
the Democrats idea to its logical and lpgiti-
mate conclusion. and you would have graded
and high schools established in the more
prosperous portions of the county, for the
benefit of the children of the rich, while in
other sections, not SO greatly blessed with
heavy tax payers, no schools could be estab-
lished ut all.
There is another pulpable error in the
Dem0crdtS figures by which he attempts to
show that the expense of educating each pu-
pill in the Graded School is no greater than
IN the other schools. Let us sec.
The total cost of this Graded School is
$780, it is true. TO this amount it is pro-
the Bel Air Academy, for the education of
perhaps five free pupils, who must, from ne
cessity, come from the neighborhood inc.ud-
cd in the Democrats calculations. Thus we
have grand total of $3400, a portion of
which, ut least, is paid by that section of the
county not included in the Bel Air School
district
Bel Air, according to the Democrat, PAYS
taxes upon one million dollars of property.
For tie taxes thus raised the Democrat
claim that 100 scholars are educated. The
Report of the School Commissioners gives
the number as 16i, and shows the average
attendance TO be only II! The Demoey19i
figures the cost of each pupil at $142l year.
The report gives it rs actually $37 A.
Now for the taxes raised in Bel Air, and
with the Academy fund, the 12 graded schol-
ars and the free Academy scholars are cd
ucatcd, at cost of $1,000, or at an average
OF S44l5 for each pupil, instead of $1421
The remainder Of the district pays taxes
upon more than two and a.half million dol
lars. For this they have 10 schools, with an
average attendance Of 21S pupils, at cost
of only $l211 per pupil. Where is the
claim, then, Mr.. Editor, that Bel Air only
gets what she pays for? On the contrary,
as you see, the cost of educating children in
Bel Air, ut the Graded School, is really
$44.15 per pupil, instead of $1421, as the
editor of the Democrat endeavors to prove.
Bel Air, instea dof receiving from the school
fund less than she pays into it, receives
nearly one. half more
If the public school system is intended to
be general one, for the education of chill
dren in every section of the county, let its
benefits be equally distributed Do not keep
graded schools open in favored localities, for
the benefit Of the children of the wealthy,
while the schools for the children of the poor
are closed. Let all share alike
If the public schools are only Intended for
the rich and well to.do, let the system be re.
organized so that poor, Woodworking far
mers may, by combining their slender means,
keep plain, good public schools open all The
year SEVENTY
Churchville, May 90, 1876