The comet. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1877-1882, 1879-03-22
THE COMMON SCHOOL FUND.
The True Cause of the Delay iM its
distribution.


The public school laws of the State have vi
u tualy become imperative because Of the dife
Y ence of officials in their enforcement. The scho
fund of the State which should have been di
bursed in January, is, owing to the negligence
some high-toned official, still lying in the vault
the State Treasury. The officials who throw o
) stacles in the way OF public education cannot e.
D pect to be retained in power by the peope.-Natch
Sun.
The above paragraph is calculated
: convey an erroneous impression and
, attach blame where it does not properl
, rest. We do not know whether it is Anne
at the State Superintendent of Education
whose duty it is to see that the school law
are enforced, or at the Auditor who is sup
posed to withhold his warrants withou
reason, or the State Treasurer who, it i
probably imagined, refuses to pay out tn
fund from pure carelessness or Indifference
If either ot these conceptions has pene
trated the sapient head of the Sun it onl.
shows that the head is ready to entertain
simple absurdity. The Superintendent hai
been active and exceedingly watchful o.
the public school interests, and has done
everything he could do to prevent the delay
in the distribution of the fund. SO has
the Auditor. And the Treasurer has new.
er delayed an instant the payment of any
warrant on the school fund. We happen
to be in position to know that none of
these State officials have at any time neg
lected single duty in this regard, blt on
the contrary, the Superintendent and Aud>
i5or have taken extraordinary pains to pres
vent the delay.
The explanation is as follows: The
school law of the last Legislature requires
fines and forfeitures in the several counties
to be paid over to the county treasurers to
the credit of the Common School fund.
The amount so paid over in each county is
to be reported to the Auditor by the clerk
of the Board of Supervisors, on the 1st of
June and December, and this amount so
reported is to be deducted from the pro-
rata share of the county in the July and
January distributions And, again, the
law required last year report from each
county of the number of educable chill
dren, to base the apportionment for Janua-
ry upon.
1t will be seen now, that it was simple
impossibility to make the apportionmeut
according to law until all these reports were
in. The delays in the distribution were
caused by the absence of reports from sev>
eral counties. Was the Auditor or Super>
intendent remiss in their duties, OF in any
way blamable for the absence of these re-
ports? Let us see. On the first of De-
cember the Auditor issued short circular
and sent it to every Chancery Clerk ii. the
State, calling his attention to the law re-
quiring these reports, and insisting upon
in sending them forward be-
cause the fund could not be distributed
until they were received. Most of the
clerks responded at once, but some fifteen
or twenty were not heard from up to the
first of January, when another circular of
the same purport was forwarded to the
THIS probably brought half
Of those who had not reported before, but |
some ten or twelve were still unheard from,
and then the Auditor resorted to private
etters to the parties yet delinquent urging
hem personally to hurry up their reports,
Is it was very desirable the teachers should
nave their money and the interests of the
common schools should not suffer by with-
lolding the money due. This policy was
Kept up until several hundred letters had
been written to clerks and county treasurers
md county superintendents on the subject.
The Auditor and State Superintendent CO.
operated with each other and consulted
,ften as to the best and quickest mode of
procuring the reports which the law requir-
ID before a distribution could be made,
nd both of them did everything in their
,ower to avert or lessen the delay.
The same delay will occur in the next
nd each succeeding distribution unless the
eports are sent as directed, or unless the
aw is amended.
In our opinion the law regulating the
manner of making this apportionment
ught to be changed. Either the fund
rising from fines and forfeitures should
'e sent directly to the State Treasurer for
he school fund, or it ought to be given
xclusively to the county in which it is
aised. Legislators have not considered
the difficulty of procuring sew
nty four reports in time. Where there
re so many to be made one or two failures
re almost certain to occur-they may oc"
ar from various causes, neglect, miscar-
iage in the mail, loss of letter 1t one end
1 line or other, forgetfulness, inaccuracy,
ignorance of the requirement, or want of
ppreciation of The importance of the
eport Indeed, it would be strange, in
evenly four cases, if there did not occur !
lip somewhere, for some cause or other,
nd if one clerk fail ihe apportoinment can
Iot be made according TO law, and all the !
est of the counties are made to suffer for
be failure of one. If the fines and for
eitures are to constitute part of the
ieneral School fund they should be sent
o the State Treasurer, aud no delay would ]
ccur again on this ground; or if not sent {
D the State Treasurer they should be used
or the county's exclusive benefit, and not
eported to the Auditor to be made factor
n his apportionment. In either case the
clay would be avoided, and we fear there {
7ill continue IN be the same trouble with 4,
he distribution of this fund unless some>
hing of the kind is done at the next Leg ]
Stature.