Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1882-08-05
THE RIGHT OF THE CITIZEN TO
HIGHER EDUCATION,

Article TX. of the State Constitution
opens in these words: ga general diffu-
:" sion of knowledge and intelligence being
essential to the preservation of the
" rights and liberties of the people, the
Legislature shall encourage by all suit.
" able means the prosecution of intellec-
tual, scientific, moral and agricultural
improvements. That looks like good
beginning, but when we come to Section 6
we encounter a barrier which cuts the
State educational system clean in two, and
which in 60 doing shuts out the poor from
all the advantages Of the higher educa.
tion. We quote "Section 6. The public
school system shall include primary and
grammar schools. and such high schools,
evening schools, musical schools and
" technical schools as may be established
" by the Legislature, or by municipal or
district authority bit the entire revenue
" deriued from the State School Fund, and
" the State school tar, shall be applied er.
ctus'uety to the support Of primary and
grammar schools" The provision we
have italicized separates the common
school system from the University, and, in
fiat contradiction of the first section of
Article X, confines the mass of the PEG.
pie of the State to the primary and gram
mar schools, reserving the higher schools
and the University for the SONS of those
who can command money. 1t is certainly
very singular fact that the new Constitu-
ton, which was framed chiefly by men
who made an DESTINATIONS pretense of the
radicalism of their democracy, should
thus have established the most odious and
least tolerable of all DETERMINATIONS
discrimination based solely upon pecuniary
circumstances.
This however is the fact, and it must be
accepted and dealt with. Now that all
the prejudice and passion which obscured
the defects of the new Constitution have
passed away, it is necessary to face the
changes for the worse which it has en-.
tailed upon the people, and to determine
whether or not these changes for the
worse shall be endured. On this question
OF the higher education there is not much
room for controversy. If this is a repub-
lican form of government under which we
are living, and if it is to be maintained as
such, there can be no federation for an ed :.
ucational system which deprives the poor
OF the most valuable part of knowledge,
and which imposes in effect a property
qualification upon all who seek to give
their children the benefit of University in
struction. The democratic genius and
principle have been ignored in this part of
the Constitution. Under the pretense of
enlarging the liberties of the people it has
curtailed them. And it has aimed the
most cruel blow at their prospects in de-
priving them of the means of fitting them.
selves for positions in life above those of
servile toll and dependence.
When those who are merely office seekers
and professional politicians make platforms,
they neither know ner care what the times
demand. Their sole anxiety is to adopt
taking catch. words, and issues which can
be urged noisily. the platforms of poll.
ticiaps have been series of traps in which
the voters have been caught. No matter
what sound and fury have filled campaigns,
all the public spirit, all the reform energy,
has invariably vanished on the evening of
the day of election. It is only when the
people make the Issues that they are genu.
inc, and that they are attended to with
fidelity. Now the issue of higher educa.
ton for the masses is one which has to do
with no abstraction. Nor is it at all am.
biguous or obscure. We have stated the
facts as clearly as possibly. Here is great
State, with q system of common schools
employing 5000 teachers, and supposed,
theoretically, to be capped and completed
by State University. This appearance,
however, is delusion. mockery, and q
snare. As matter Of fact, .fourths
of the people OF California are excluded
from the University, and are confined to
the primary and grammar schools. They
may look at the University, and they may
talk about it, but they cannot put their
children into it.
They have no means of preparing their
children for the University. There are
only few High Schools in the State--not
enough to supply twentieth part of the
population. The majority cannot make
use of these few High Schools. The re-.
suit is that all the education their children
get is from the primary and grammar
schools. 1t is very certain that the people
did not understand this question when
they voted for the new Constitution, but
they are coming to understand it now.
Los Angeles clamored for Normal School
until she got it. Redding has long been
making similar demand, and is undoubt-
eddy equally entitled to it. But it is not
enough to give Redding and Los Angeles
Normal Schools. What is needed is to
equalize the benefits Of the State educa.
tional system &C that they will be within
the reach of the poorest. That is the
issue which the RECORD. UNION proposes to
the Republican party, and it is one which
every parent and every intelligent voter
must approve, no matter what his politics.
There must be no pariah class in repub.
lie, but it is apparent that the operation of
the present law tends to create pariah
class. For it provides in effect that only
those who can afford to prepare their chill
dren at private schools and colleges shall
be permitted to avail themselves Of the
educational advantages of the University.