The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1878-01-26
What Is ~ Com mon School Educa-
ton!

What Is ~ Common School Educa-
The movement for the discontinuance of
the New York College comes from those who
insist that the public school system as
originally established did not contemplate
than common school education :" that
to give free education in the higher branches
of learning is an abuse of the system, and
that it is unjust to tax the people at large
for collegiate education bestowed on only a
small fraction of the children of the State
and often upon pupils whose parents can
afford to pay for their collegiate studies.
These general reasons are supplemented by
others alleged to be applicable especially
to the New York College. It is maintained
that the common schools Of the
city are insufficient to accommodate
all the children who desire to attend
them that the amount appropriated to
the college could be better expended in the
extension Of the common school facilities
and that the management of the college is
extravagant, each student being graduated
at cost to the public of four thousand dol
lars, while Columbia College offers to
graduate the public school pupils who are
properly qualified for one hundred dollars
each.
1t is not easy to understand just what
limitation the advocates of the discon-
tinuance Of the college place on common
school education" The education in the
public schools thirty years ago was very
different from the education of to-day, and
in another thirty years it will. no doubt,
have progressed in an equal proportion
to the advance of the last thirty
years. 1t might be said to be an 'abuse
of the system" to make o single step for
ward in public instruction, and, indeed,
according to the singular views expressed
by Governor Robinson, we do an injury to
the children of the poorer classes when we
make them, by education, the superiors of
their parents and unfit them for the
humber pursuits Of life by developing
their intelligence and fostering their am
bition. But as it is in the pub
of the State from growing up in ignorance,
which is the parent of crime, so it must be
equally for the general good to encourage
such of them as possess superior intelli-
gence and application to become not only
respectable but useful and distinguished
members of society. Governor Robinson's
remarkable theory would keep the children
of ignorant parents in ignorance, and
would crush out the desire of truck
drivers son to follow any other calling
than that which supports his father.
But if free education is public
good, the higher and better it is the greater
the benefit to the State. Theargument that
it is unjust to tax the people at large to
give few children college education
would, if carried to its legitimate conclu-
sion, prove the injustice of taxing people
who do not use the common schools for the
common school education of those who do
for, as we have said, if any free education
is public benefit, then the higher and
better the education the greater must be
the public good.
The charge of extravaganza against the
management of the college should be search
ingly investigated. The statement that each
student is graduated at an expense of four
thousand dollars is however, so clearly q
misrepresentation that the wild statement
does much to discredit the charge. The aver
age attendance of students is not less than
eight hundred, and these must be calculated
in estimating the cost per capita whether
they graduate or not. The large majority
select the commercial course of one year,
which is an excellent one, and turns out
good and useful pupils. The expenditures
are about one hundred and forty thousand
dollars year, which would make the
cost of each student on the average
number one hundred and seventy
five dollars. The accounts for last
year show the payments for salaries
to have been S12G. 800 out of q total OF
Sal, 500, the small balance Being for sta
tionery, fuel, gas, books, apparatus and re-
pairs. The teachers are not overpaid and
attendance. These facts induce us to doubt
the correctness of the charge of enormous
extravaganza made against the management.
When, however, it is claimed that it would
be more economical to educate the public
school pupils at Columbia College than to
keep up the New York College the argu-
ment against free collegiate education is
abandoned, and the question is narrowed
down to one of dollars and cents
General Grant mt Mount Vesuvtus.
The Eastern tour OF the ex-President has
6tnf 81 inhflu ont of 0rdnr GO far nc Our COR