The aegis & intelligencer. [volume] (Bel Air, Md.) 1864-1923, 1878-02-08
The Proposed Change in the School Law.

the writer.
The Proposed Change in the School Law.
The refusal of the judges of some of the
Circuit Courts of the State to appoint School
Commissioners has led to considerable dis.
cussion at Annapolis and among the people
ut large as to the best substitute for that
method of appointment The judges refusing
to make these appointments take the ground
that the duty imposed upon them by the
school law is extra judicial, altogether out
side of their legitimate functions and there
fore unconstitutional.
It the Judges can not by law be compelled
to make these appointments, and decline to
do so, the Legislature must adopt some other
mode of appointment Several plans, it is
stated, have been sug gested. One ofthese is to
vest the appointment of School Commission.
ers in State Board, composed of one men,
Der from each legislative district, elected by
the people; another to empower the County
Commissioners to appoint the board of School
Commissioners, and third to elect them by
a direct vote of the people.
The firstnamed plan, it is obvious, would
result, in many cases, in comforting the power
of choosing the School Board for each county
upon the member of the State Board repre-
senting that county-a method as objection
able as the present one.
The plan of appointment by the County
Commissioners would have the merit of taxi
ing the matter out of the direct domain of
politics, perhaps, and give the people, through
the election of the County Commissioners,
more control than they now have in the
selection of the school boards.
The election of the School Commissioners
by the direct vote of the people seems to us
the fairest and best of all, and we hope the
Legislature will adopt it.
The School Commissioners annually dis
burse large amount of the public funds
They are entirely independent of any con-
troll or supervision by higher power. The
Judge, it is true, may remove them every two
years, but as he is not responsible for their
shortcomings, this power is seldom exercis-
ed They appoint Treasurer, fix the amount
of his bond and the sufficiency thereof; and
while complying strictly with the letter of the
law, can give the public just so much informa-
ton as to the manner in which they have car
red out their trusts as they may deem proper.
The County Commissioners, on the other
hand, are required to give a detailed account
of the expenditure of every cent raised by
taxation, and the public can express their
disapproval of any official extravaganza or
incompetency on their part by RELOCATING
them to private life at the first opportunity.
The School Commissioners under the gen.
eral law, can incur debts, and the titles to the
school houses being vested in them, these can
be seized and sold to pay such debts. In
Hartford county, alone, there is local law :,
prohibiting the School Commissioners from
mourning debts; but if they should become
involved in debt, it is doubtful if the property
held in their name, rs a corporate body,
could be exempt from seizure for such indebt-
cdness.
These powers, it appears to us, are too
great to be vested in any body of public Of
hcers, unless the people have the power to
choose for themselves those to whom such
important trusts are to be committed.
The plea is made that to elect the School
Commissioners by the people would drag
into the arena of politics question which
should be kept free from the faint of parli-
sanship. The same objection might he urged
against the election of our judges by vote
of the whole people. The trainers of the
Constitution of the State were willing to en-
trust the election of the judges to the people
rather than to confer the power of choosing
them upon the Legislature or the Governor
Our judges were all elected by the votes of
the people, and no one Can question the abili-
ty or integrity of the Judiciary of our State
If the people can be trusted to elect their
judges, why not allow them the privilege,
also, of elecling their School Commissioners.
Surely all that can he said in favor of q
popular election in enc case will apply with
equal force 10 the other,
The question of the management Of our
public schools so as to ensure the best results
hVbi 'hO hibhSJ SNPShuSui 10 'iS Va thS hiooe
important before the Legislature. Nothing
should be done to impair the efficiency of the
system, but the people have right TO demand
more direct control in the selection of the
agents by whom their public schools are TO
be managed than they now have.
The SCHOOL FUND DISTRIBUTION Sen
ator Danron had conference last week with
the association of School Commissioners re-
lative to the bill he proposes to offer to de-
clare legal the distribution of the school fund
by Combtroller Woolford A correspondent
of the Gazette says:
Mr.. Bannon said he was friend to public
schools. and had good reason to be one, rs he
owed his progress in life to the education he
received at the schools of Kent county. But
the fact of them being so popular had, he
thought, undoubtedly been presumed upon to
A.