Morning journal and courier., 1883-05-11
Friday, May II, 1883.
FREE BOOKS IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS

FREE BOOKS IE PUBLIC SCHOOLS.
 question is up for discussion in Brooklyn in which all cities which have "publie school systems" are interested. It has been decided there to ask the Board of Estimates to insert $75,o00 in the budget for the coming fiscal year to furnish free books for the pupils in the public schools As this question may come up here at any timeit is interesting and may perhaps be profitable, to notice the ar- gunents for and against the proposition.
 Those members of the Brooklyn Board of Education who favor free books lay much stress upon the fact that the free-book sys- tenn is already in operation in part, at least, in the city, as those children whose parents assert that they are without means to pur- chase books are furnished them without charge. If the plan of furnishing free books is adopted in such cases why should it not be made 8 general system? is the question asked by the advocates of the appropriation. This query is met by the assertion that the partial distribution of books, without any pay being received for them, gives rise to many abuses. In many cases parents who find it difficult to provide the money to pur-
 
 avail themselves of the gratuitous supply, because they know that their children will be pointed at by their schoolmates as too poor to buy their books. On the other hand, paf- ents who can well afford to supply their little ones with all that is necessary to prosecute their studies under false plea of poverty obtain books without paying for them.
 The Brooklyn Union is heartily opposed to the free book system and forcibly states some objections to it. The pupils in the public schools are now receiving good education at the public expense. So thorough is that education in the more practical branches of study that children of rich as well as of poor parents are sent to the schools. There cer tainly cannot be any hardship in requiring that, the education being free of cost, the scholars should be required to purchase the books necessary for the grade in which they may be students Even the poorest Ffami- lies should, by the exercise of economy, be able to provide the means to equip their children for a free education. What should be said, asks the Union, of a proposition to clothe those little ones at the public expense. whose parents are too poor to provide them with such raiment as they may deem necessary in order that their children may make as good an appear ance as their schoolmates? It would be considered absurd to propose any such thing. Another matter must be taken into consider ation. It has beeR proved by experience in connection with free books in New York, that the children do not show the same care for volumes that they receive eratuitously as they exercise over those which are paid for by their parents Pupils use and destroy these books and have continually to be re- supplied.
 On the other hand it may be argued that it makes very little difference whether the amount annually expended for books is col lected by taxation or comes directly from the pockets of those who have to buy books for their children. Heavy taxpayers, however, who have few or no children in the public schools would not see SO much force in this argument. It would, perhaps. make the ''system" little more complete if the books as well as the schoolhouses, with all their ex- cellent arrangements. were owned by the public, and considerable trouble and delay would be saved at the beginning of terms and when books were changed. It will be inter- esting to see If the plan finds enough favor to secure its adoption in Brooklyn.