The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1883-06-09
The Common School.

pcst y = asA'ssEys 2 very strong felling
growing up in respect TO our Com
mon School System and its present
management: Mr.. Allen Bowie
Davis, of Montgomery county, who
has been connected, more or less,
with public education FOR 4 life time
in a recent speech has taken strong
grounds against what he considered
the abuses and wrongs of the present
system and management. He al
leges that it is being perverted from
its true, original design and manage
ment.
''In speaking of the expenses of the
system, he states that 81, 500, 900 is
spent upon the schools, when with
proper and correct management the
cost should not be over a million of
dollars, thus saving what would
more than pay the interest upon the
State debt. 1t is important, in view
of all this, that this greatest of all pos
sible subjects to the people receive
careful consideration - to see how
heavy our taxation is to support the
system and how much it costs, and
then to have, even in the severest
taxed counties, comparatively so lit
tie of the schools and, in reality, so
little benefit in this respect for
such great taxation.
We find the above in the Hagers-
town Mail of last week. 1t is a con-
fession from Mr.. Allen Bowie Davis,
of Montgomery county. as we'll as
from the Mail, that the "abuses and
wrongs of the present system and
management" of the public schools
in Maryland have become notorious
and call for reform. The Common
School System and its management
have been in the hands of the Dem
ocratic party of this State for the last
fifteen years. This party is response
BILE for all the mismanagement and
abuses that have weighted it down.
They themselves have confessed to
the mismanagement, and of the truth
of the matter there is no doubt.
Under the system as organized by
the Republican party, the patrons of
the schools and the parents of the
children had the management of the
public schools in their own hands.
The Democratic constitution of 1867
took the management out of the hands
of the people, alleging that they
were not capable of electing the di-
rectors, trustees, &C., and placing the
whole system in the hands of the
Circuit Judges throughout the State,
who were. at that time, all Demo.
Gratis, and strictly partisan in their
feelings and their management of the
system, as the sequel showed.
The entire system in every county
in the State was put in the hands of
the Democratic party. Every Board
of School Commissioners in the State
was composed of all, or large ma
jority, of Democrats every Board of
School Commissioners In the State,
In appointing the district board of
trustees, put the system in the
hands of the Democratic party
by appointing a majority of the
trustees Democrats. In our own
county, in every case, two out of the
three trustees. in every school dis.
trict In Washington County, were
Democrats. And this same system
has been carried out up to the pres
ent hour of writing. We doubt
whether there is a single board of
trustees in this county that has not
majority of Democrats on tex
cept in one or two cases of colored
trustees, where it was impossible to
find colored Democrats to appoint
The whole School System was, from
the very moment the Democratic
party came into power under the con-
stitution of 1867, degraded into a po-
litical system that has been used ever
since to give place and patronage to
members of that party. In making
their appointments, it seemed as if
but one requisite was necessary to Sc
cure an appointment: us he DEM
ocrat."
These are cold, naked facts that can
not be controYerted. d.
The General Assembly, at almost
every session since 1867, has been i'm.