Richmond dispatch. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1884-1903, 1885-06-03
wEDNESDAY...........JUNE3 3, 1888
The City Public Schools.

there has been an amicable dispute
going on between the City Council and
the School Board Of this city as to the
custody Of the school funds. Wehave
ourselves referred to the dispute sew
eraI times, and we have said once or
oftener that the councilmen and the
school trustees were alike no doubt
acting and voting conscientiously.
The action Of the Common Council
on Monday night last shows that we were
not mistaken 10 our estimate OF the
character of the men who compose our
City Legislature. As soon as that body
vas satisfied that under the law Of Viz
ginis the custody Of the school funds
properly belongs to the School Board,
il voted to comply with the law. We
trust that the Board Of Aldermen will
examine this matter, study the ques-
ton, and follow next Monday the good
example set last Monday by the Com
mon Council.
Let us just here remark that there
are concerned in this matter not only
the parents of the two or three thou
sand children who are clamoring in
vain for admission into the public
schools, but the parents of two or
three thousand children now in the
public schools who may have TO give
way next year to the children who
have hitherto been excluded from
those schools. In other words,
it will become the duty of the
School Board in making rules
for the admission Of pupils into the
schools next fall, to ask themselves
whether it is fair, or right, or just, or
lawful, to keep the same children out
Of school year after year, and the same
children in school year after year,
when the fact is that both sets are
equally entitled to admission. The
men whose children attend the public
schools are known to be friends of
those schools; and these men will
surely vote in the Council, or elsewhere
when opportunity offers. so as that their
votes shall aid in promoting the eff
cheney OF those schools.
As all the members Of the Board of
Aldermen may not have had time to find
out for themselves what the school
laws provide in reference to the matter
now in friendly controversy between
that body and the School Board (for
the Common Council is on the side Of
the School Board, we will once more
quote from those laws, beginning, how
ever, with law which we have not
heretofore referred to. We quote from
the Code Of Virginia
"The public free-school system
shall be administered by the following
authoritics-to wit board Of edu-
cation, a superintendent Of public in
struction, county and city superintend.
ents Of schools, and district school
trustees"
Not one word is said there as to city
councils. 1t is matter with which
these have nothing to do. The school
trustees are the administrators, not the
City Council. AS we have said here
toiore, the General Assembly appro-
pirates for each year so many thousand
dollars to the University Of Virginia, so
many thousand dollars to the Virginia
Military Institute, SO many thousand dol
lars TO each Of the lunatic asylums, and
so many thousand dollars to every State
institution, but puts the money in each
case in the hands Of Board of Direc-
tors, and leaves it to these boards to
say how the money shall be expended.
So it is with the money which the City
Council Of Richmond appropriates to
public-school purposes. The law every
where contemplates the expenditure of
this money by the Board Of School
Trustees. II any alderman has doubt |
on the subject, let him appeal to the
State Board Of Education, concerning
whose duties the law provides as fol-
lows:
1.-THE duties Of the State Board of
Education shall be-" &C., &c.
"To regulate all matters arising in
the practical administration Of the
school system which are not otherwise
provided for"
The State Board will tell you that
the City School Board is in the right.
Again: The law provides as to the
State Superintendent Of Public Instruc-
ton as follows:
%. 1t shall be his duty to determine
the true intent and meaning of the
school laws and regulations, and to ex-
plain to the county superintendents and
other school officers the several duties
enjoined thereby upon them, and his
decision shall be final unless and until
reversed by the Board Of Education.
That officer will tell you that the
School Board is in the right. Mr.. KEr-
LEY, the. late City Attorney, said the
same. So no doubt will say the pre-
sent City Attorney.
when the Legislature intended for
the City Council to have power, it con-
fsrred that power. See:
The school boards Of the respective
cities shall have power, subject 10 the
approval Of the common conneiis, to
prescribe the number and boundary of |
the school districts, and the number Of |
trustees" &C., &c.
Ssn't 1t clear that the same proyi- |
sion you'd have been made Is to funds, |