The National tribune., 1883-03-22
National Aid for state schools.


to report
National Aid for State Schools.
In the course of recent article on Rep
resentative Sheryin's bill to appropriate
S10,000,000 annually from the funds in the
national Treasury to the support of the COM
mon schools of the country, the money to be
distributed in proportion to the prevalence
of illiteracy in the several States, we took
occasion to remark, as our readers will
doubtless remember, that the question at
| issue was whether or not it was properly
within the province of the National Govern
ment to bear any part of the cost of public
| education. There are those who contend that
education is purely the concern of the States
composing the Union, and that to supple
ment the support which they give to their
common school systems by national aid,
would impair their self-reliance; that is
to say, that they would take advantage of
| the aid thus rendered to relSx their
own efforts to maintain the schools and
gradually shift the whole burden on to the
national Government The advocates of
this doctrine of course are opposed to ex-
tending national aid in any form whatever
| to the schools. They are unit on that
point. Among those, however, who hold to
the opposite opinion, namely, that it is the
| duty of the Government, out of considera-
ton for the national welfare to do what it
can to wipe out what experience has shown
| to be an evil which the States, unaided, are
powerless to remove, there exists a very
decided diversity of views. The point of
disagreement concerns the manner in which
the aid of the Government should be ex-
tended to the schools. Representative Sher-
wins bill provides that the money appro-
priated by Congress shall be distributed
among the States in proportion to their
| illiteracy, and that is the plan which natur-
ally meets with the most favor in the
| South, since under it the Southern States
would be the largest beneficiaries. The
| grounds upon which this method of distri-
button is based have reference solely to the
object desired to be gained. The more
pressing the need of any particular sec
ton for outside help, the more gener-
Gus, it is urged, should be the assistance
| Iad 10 do xy1ar nf{ ho
however, leaves entirely out of consid-
Grafton the question of the equality Of
taxation. To tax the people of the North
and West for the support of schools from
which they themselves would derive no
| direct benefit, would unquestionably be
unjust, and inevitably create public dissatis-
faction. 1t may be sound policy, say those
who entertain these opinions, to extend
| national aid to our common schools, if as
the census shows, the support which they
receive from the States is not sufficient to
meet the demands upon them, but in order
that this aid may be equitably distributed,
it should be proportional in the ratio, not
of the illiteracy, but of the population of
the several States. This view of the ques-
ton is very ably supported by Senator
Logan, in the April number of the North
american Reuieto. Senator Logan comedies
the necessity of taking effective measures to
check the. growth of illiteracy, and if posi-
BILE remove the evil altogether; and, in
deed, he is of the opinipn that not less than
$4,000, 900 per annum should be appropri-
ated for that purpose but he is far from
agreeing with Representative Sherwin
that it would be statesmanlike or in accord
with the best interests of the country,
that the Government should voluntarily
shoulder the whole burden of Southern
present existence is due to past neglect and
Indifference on the part of those who now
! bear it. Admitting that the taxable basis
of the Southern States is small as compared
with the Northern and Western, there is nc
, reason, IS he points out, why the rate Of
taxation levied for school purposes should
not be as large in the former as in the Lat.
ter, and so long as the school tax of Georgis
t and Alabama, for instance is but one-fifth
of one per cent. on the assessed value o.
property, while Illinois taxes her property
; holders four-6fths of one per cent and Iowa
) over one per cent, it would be manifestly
f unjust to the latter to base the proposed
8 distribution of Government aid on the com
: parative ratio of illiteracy.
/ AS matter of fact, statistics show thai
: the lack of educational facilities in TIL,
t South is not due, as has been claimed, selely
:, to the inability of the Southern States Il
e provide the necessary means, for, as Senator
t Logan says, there is no reason why Geor
: gia, North Carolina, and other Southern
|, States should not tax their people to tn,
n same extent as Illinois, Iowa, or Ohio, Il
s educate their children" The truth is tina
Q the South has been shamefully culpable il
d this matter, not only as regards its coloret
q citizens but its white population also. from