Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1882-11-01
The Educational Question.

The Educational question:
The committee on education is wrestling |
with the school question. The point around
which the discussion centers now is Sena
tor Towards bill to abolish the district sys-
tenn and place the schools under town
control. A law permitting the towns
individually to adopt the system and pro-
yiding for its administration was passed In |
1870 Several towns adopted the new sys- |
tenn. The practical working OF the schools
in those towns is being brought out before
the committee, and is briefly stated in the re-
ports of the public hearings, in the columns
of this weeks paper. The theory OF town |
management of schools as against the dis
trict system is good and it does not yet ap- |
pear that in this case practice is seriously |
out of harmony with theory. On the con-
trary, the evidence clearly shows, in spite oil
the unwillingness of some Of the witnesses,
that the adoption of the town system has
marked the beginning of an era of improve
ment in schools, and Notwithstanding some
natural friction in the working Of the new
machinery during the first year or two OF its
adoption, these improvements have grown
with natural and gratifying growth as
time has passed on. These improvements
have been the frightening out of the school
year by several weeks, permanency in the
tenure of office of school officials, the choos.
ing of better class of men for directors
than the average prudential committee I'M
der the district system, the selection OF bet
ter teachers and greater permanency in the
tenure of their office. These things have
resulted in the increased efficiency of the
schools in an equalization of the benefits
and the burdens, and under the system the
towns which have adopted it have won an
enviable fame for the superior excellence of
their schools. Judged by the res enable list
of practical results where it ra, been hon.
estly and faithfully tried, the system is
success so far as its main purpose is con-
cerned-the efficient education of the chill
dren and the extension of equal advantages
to all. Financially, it does not appear that
these desirable results have been accom-
plshed at any unreasonable increase in the
expense of maintaining the schools. If in
any town it should appear that the schools
have cost more money than was spent for
their support under the district system, it
has been shown that there has also been an
increase of twenty-five per cent in some in
stances of the number of weeks of school
and an increase in benefits which bears no
ratio, that can be expressed in figures, to
whatever slight enlargement the school tax
may have experienced. In some cases it has
appeared that the adoption of the town sys-
tenn has been followed by steady increase
in the number of weeks of school and in the
aggregate attendance as well as by very
marked degree of efficiency, while at the
same time the expense per week OF the
schools has sensbly diminished. This is
notably the case in Brighton, in which town,
the superintendent reports that in 1S75-76,
the last year under the district system, the
total number of weeks of school in all the
districts was $50; total number of scholars
attending the schools, 35f average cost
per week, 1914 For the year lSS1-S2 the
total number of weeks of school was 32S
total number of scholars jl7; average cost,
including all expenses and embracing ex-
penses of central town high school, IS 93.
At the end of the first five years trial this
town re-adopted the town system, at an un.
usually full meeting, with only two opposing
votes. Waitsfeld makes showing scarcely
less favorable, and it hardly admits of denial
that in Middletown, where the system for
reasons which do not in any wise affect its
merits seems to have worked with more or
less friction, the benefits as compared with
the district system are undeniable, and that
the town holds high rank as an educational
town. So far as the probings of the COM
mittee have extended, if clearly defined ben
efcial results without any serious offsetting
disadvantages are an argument in favor of
a system, it is clear that the proposal to
make the adoption of the town system gen.
eral must be combatted and rejected on
grounds other than those of reason. 1t is
not claimed by its best friends that the town
system is perfect. Its merits, and especially
its dement's, it is desired to expose. If it
has the advantages which should lead
Brighton and Waitsield by practically
unanimous and very enthusiastic vote to re-
adopt the system after five and ten years of
trial, it certainly has merits which are
worthy the consideration of other towns
and whatever ingenious theories men may
spin to satisfy themselves that it will not
work well in "our town." they should can
didly open their minds to the lesson which
practical experience teaches. Massachusetts
is celebrated for the perfection of its schools.
Year by year the towns of that state had
adopted the town system, and at its last ses'
sion the legislature passed law making it
the system of the state. In Michigan, eel
ebrated throughout the union for the supe-
riority of its common schools, the township
system prevails, securing for the manage
ment of the schools efficient school boards
with tenure of office sufficiently guarded TO
secure to the state the benefit of capable
and experienced officials. In the west the
district system is unknown in practice and
the benefits the states derive from their
broader way of looking at things are too ap-
parent to admit of successful denial. A be-
ginning in educational reform must be made
somewhere. The experience of other states,
the experience of towns in our own state,
indicate that the reform cannot better be
commenced than through the town system.
This is not all of it, but it is an essential
part. The state should be supreme in mat
tiers of education and it should not allow
the cheese-paring policy which 6ourishes un-
der the district system to impede, under any
specious plea of democracy, progress in that
direction which underlies advancement in
all other departments.
The Highway District System.
As a system specially designed to squan-
der money and promote insutliciencies in
the highways, the practice of dividing the