The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1878-02-16
The school Fund.

special to the Baltimore American
ANNAPoLIs, Feb. THE Joint
Standing Committee on Education
'nel last night, Senator Stump in the
ci'alr, and the discussion of the school
ea4 question was resumed. The
peHalng matter was the charge
brought by the Frederick County
g'elioOl Board, that they had received
'eSs money from the Comptroller on
aecount of the school fund app ,rtion-
'heAt than they were charged with
|ny The Comptroller in his report.
MfJames W. Pearre, President Of
she Board, and Mr.. F. f. Lakin, its
STrtary. and also ex- x-Comptroiler
: ,fsa,ssS .sppenrec before the com
EfNVe inlTegard to the matter.
HTNe specific charge ofthe Frederick
County Board in its memorial wa,
that tie Comptroller had in his re-
port FIR 1876 charged against the
countyS2, 1854 more than he had
paid tn't (which charge is fraudulent
or erroneous" Mr.. Lakfn stated
that he lad conferred with eX- Comp.
trolIer V0OlfOrd about the matter.
and thathe had explained that the
disbursements 10 tie colored schools
in 1873 hal not been included in the
table OF receipts and expenditures
until 1876 which occasioned the dis,
crepancy. The table in the report for
1877 he admitted was perfectly cor
rect. a rmbling discussion ensued,
in which the accuracy of the table of
receipts and expenditures on account
of the school fund, known as estate.
ment l." cf the ComptroIler's report,
was strong y impeached. Mr.. Wool
ford admitted that the table up to
the report of 1877 was wrong; it
showed balance that had never been
in the treasury, and a man might
have puzzled over it until doomsday
without getting a true account of it.
After this remarkable admission as
to the accuracy of the statements OF
his own reports he went on to say
that he got clerk who had been in
the Office in 1865, when the school
fund was instituted, to come there
and 60 over the statement of that
fund from the beginning, and the re.
salt Of his labors was the. table con
hiued in the report for 1877, whict
baasserted was perfectly correct ant
ot'Sf6'MttTyT IN every particular. A
+ II Was admitted on All sfder that th,
statement of expenditures in this las
table was correct, it was the opinion
of the committee that the charge o
fraul had been disposed of, it having
been shown that the discrepancy
arose from the faulty manner ii
which the statement had been made
up prior to the report for 1877.
DIsTRIBUTIONO OF THE SCHOOL FUND
A AdiscuSSion then ensued as to the
mode in which the Comptroller haC
made his distributions of the SchOo
fund, Mr.. WoOlfOrd cOntending tha
he had carried out the intent of tht
legislature, and the School Commits
sioners present insisting the amour
/ decided to be due them under the de
cison of the Court was Just claim
and should be allowed.
In 1872 the Legislature appropria
ted 1000 for the support Of coloreC
schools, in addition to the levy Of |,
cents on the 500 for the white publ
schools. The Comptroller gave TIN
white schools the entire proceeds ou
ctthe levy of ten cents, ,and appropria
ted the $4,000 out of the genera
fund. In 1874, after a lively debat
on the subject, the Legislature in
creased the appropriation for coloret
schools to 500, 600 annually, at whicI
it has remained ever since, but in
stead of providing for the amount il
the tax levy for general purposes
increased the levy for the school fun
totwelve cents on the SI00, the tw
cents additional being intended 70
the colored schools. The Comptro
Ter, therefore, paid the 100000 out {
the proceeds of this levy for tn
school fund, and also went back an
charged the appropriation of 5000
for 1872 and 1873 to this fund alsC
so as to make the practice of the dt
partment uniform. From these mi
takes and misunderstanding ari,
all the trouble. In 1876, when thel
wat strong desire to reduce the taXC
and make an economical showing
the Ways and Means Committee COZ
suited with the Comptroller, and
was thought that, in view of the lars
collections of arrearages upon formt
levies and the prospective increase
the tax basis from the new asses
meDt, levy of ten cents would pr
duce nearly as much as the form
, lew of tXual1,a oantS Tho law w,