The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1877-12-05
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.

OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
We are mortified, and no less sur
prised, to learn by dodger, issued
by the President of the School Board
of our Parish, that the Public Schools
are closed for sixty days. We are
at loss to know the causes which
operated with the Board in adapting
this unexpected course so soon after
the opening of the Schools all over
the Parish. This ignorance on our
part, and that Of the interested pub
lie, emanates from the fact that the
Board from the start, have cham
pioned all their proceedings in secret
and thus have totally kept their in
terested and tax-paying constituents
in entire ignorance of their financial
means, leaving them to grope in the
dark and to make up the link in our
guessing the reasons for this sudden,
and really unexpected suspension.
From the very start Of the reform
measures which our people have been
urging, for more than five years, no
one has been more persistent and
outspoken in their favor than the
Editor of this Journal, and surely if
he has had an exceptional hobby, it
has been our Public Schools, and
with him it has been a labor of love,
battling solitary and alone for the
rights Of Rapides' children. And he
claims the credit, the sole honor of
having forced the late radical regime
of giving US our minority rights, and
starting in several localities, notably
Alexandria, most excellent schools
for white children. We mention
these things as claim to be now out
spoken against the faas1 pas of our
home reformers, who were but too
| glad to ride in our handsome promi-
ses and fair sermons, and now hitch
their reform steeds to the old rack,
and expecting the public ito blindly
say, we'll done, good and faithful SER
wants. No such mushroom reform
enters in our notions of right, nor
are we going to praise officials, be-
cause they are commissioned by our
own folks.
We regret that the total ignorance,
under which we have been permitted
to bask in regard to our school af-
fairs, should force US thus to write,
but consistency and candor will not
permit US to do less. While we are
left to guess, we must state that we
suppose want of funds must be the
cause of the stoppage of the Schools.
and on this hypothesis we close, for
the present, with the publication OF
the following very important and fl
nancial law, expressly passed by the
last Legislature for the SOLE benefit
of the various School Boards Of the
State, and PERHAPS had the Board oil
) Directors here known there was such
a law, or knowing it failed TO take
advantage hereof, there now would be
means on hand to keep the Schools
going. This law is numbered Act %
Section %, approved March Goth
1877 and will be found on page SO Of
the Acts of the last General Assem-
. bly, of Louisiana:
l Sec. %. Be 1t further enacted, etc.
That the Police Juries of the respec
? tive country parishes shall be and
they are hereby authorized to levy,
within thirty days after the parish
board of school directors shall have
, required it, tax not exceeding two
mills on the dollar in any one year
) on all taxab.e property of the parish
the same to be collected as other
parish taxes, and under the same
! rules and regulations. The tax sc
collected shall be paid over Ivy the
collector of parish taxes to the treas
urer of the parish qoard of school di
: rectors, and shall by them be appor
f toned, among the wards or schoo
districts of the parish, in proportion
to the number of persons between
the ages of six and twenty years
e ACCOMPLISHMENTS
;, SINCE writing our article on thu
| School Board, we have received pro
0 per and correct information giving
/ the public the reasons, and as W.
: now believe, correct reasons, for thu
4 temporary suspensio on Of the Schools
r The Secretary of the Board, Mr.. Bel
e Turner, has courteously handed III
e the proceedings Of their last meet
e ing,we cordially give them place il
8 our columns, and feel satisfied tina
:, the Board, taking all into careful con
q sideration could not have acted 9th