Morning journal and courier., 1885-08-25
The School Board.

From the New Haven Union.
 There is no election of greater local impor- lance than that for members of the Board of Education, and none, judging by the vote, in which the taxpayers take less interest. Yet the members of the board have the con- troE and disposal of large sums of money, for the school tax is one of our heaviest, and the expenditures for the schools regularly increasing with the growth of the city. For several years past the school board has been virtually a self-perpetuating and self-nomi- hating body Sometimes, but rarely, the slate has been smashed but the unlucky can didate was pretty apt to be elected the next time, for the machine ground his name out again, and the spasm of opposition having exhausted itself with one effort, the handful l who vote at the polls dutifully ratified the choice of the board. Next month there will l be an election of four members, one more | than usual, and it is time that the voters in | terested in school matters began to give some | thought to the subject In the first place no one should be placed on the board who ! is not willing and able to devote all the | time to his duties that their due discharge require. In the second place the members | to be elected should be men of independence ! of character, who will not allow themselves to be used as tools. As school matters are l at present conducted, the board is divided ! into committees, and it appears to be point | of the strictest etiquette that whatever a committee decides upon shall be ratified as a | matter of course by the whole board. Or | dinarily committee of a legislative body in \ yestigates and reports. and it is not regarded as an insult to the committee if it's recom- mendation should be overruled. But in our 1 school board there is great deal of touchi
 ness on the subject of interfering" as it
 seems to be considered, with the work of the | committee, so that, in fact, ,..whatever com 1 mittee of three members agree to recommend | is at once accepted without examination. [ And behind and above the committees and l the board is the superintendent, who, nomi- nally the servant of the members, is their master. We are entirely aware that the pres- ent superintendent modestly, not to say unc- ! tuously, repudiates any such claim, but, nevertheless, the fact is that his plans and his schemes rarely fail of accomplishment,
 and that in the appointment of teachers and ! in their importation his voice, or rather his l whisper, is supreme. What is needed on the l board is independent intelligence to Tiff
 school matters out of the rut in which they l have too long been allowed to lie. The way | to do this is for the voters interested in the l schools those who have children in them | and those who pay the taxes, to come to- gether and exert their legitimate influence in the choice of candidates in the first instance, and afterwards in their election. There is, as we have said, no more important election and it is a shame to the voters that so little interest is taken in it. This should be
 changed, and can be changed if the many
 who know that a reform is needed will but
 take little trouble and exert themselves
 The feeling that the schools of New Haven
 are not what they should be is very general
 notwithstanding that they are industriously
 puffed by some whose commendation O
 them is not wholly disinterosted. The plac,
 to begin the reform is in the composition O
 the board, and that the voters can mak, what they please. Suppose, by way of