Huntsville gazette., 1889-09-21
EDUCATION.
Commissioner HI. N. r.. Dawson
Files His Annual Report.
Rapid Growth of the School
System of Our Country,

Especially in the Southern States-The
Sentiment in Favor of Free Schools Sup
ported by Public Fund.-. Becoming
More Universally Prevalent Each Year.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 20.-H. n r.
Dawson, the commissioner of educa-
ton, has filed with the secretary of the
interior his annual report for the year
ending June 30. 1889, in the course of
which he says that from an analysis of
the statistics of public schools for the
decade 1851 to 1886 81 it appears
that the growth of the system, consid-
ering the whole country, outstripped
during that period the growth of popu-
lation, the excess of the increase of en-
rollment over the increase of popula-
ton. 6 to IA years of age, being l.6 per
cent.
Cause Of the Gain.
This gain, the commissioner saws is
due entirely to the progress of the pub
lie schools in the two southern sectinnA,
and nIoro especially In the south Gen.
tral division. Here the increase of en-
rollment shows an excess over the in
crease of population probably never
before paralleled in country SO long
settled.
Tle sentiment in favor of free schools
supported by public funds, he says, is
becoming each year more universally
prevalent The public school systems
of the southern states have been under
going an nnprecedent DEVELOPMENT un-
der laws adopted in each case to local
circumstances. and are now practically
all established on q permanent basis.
COlored children are apportloned an
equal share OF the school fund unless in
the state of Delaware. and their schools
are kept open as long and under as we'll
paid teachers as those of the white chill
dren
The funds for the support of these
schools are furnished mainly by the
white inhabitants. and after making due
allowance for all the sums that have
been furnished for the education of the
negroes through private sources of
benevolence, and through the taxes
raised among themselves. it may still he
said that the children of those once held
in servitude in the south are being
educated by the sons of their former
masters.
Two Separate Systems.
In discussing the conditions affecting
public education in our country, he
continues, the necessity that the south
ern states are under of maintaining two
separate systems should ever be borne
in mind. 1t is apparent that these
states are at present the least able to
maintain one system in an efficient
manner. The statistics show that about
Ga per cent of the white population of
school age is enrolled, while of the col
ored population only about 80 per cent.
In the District of Columbia alone does
the colored enrolment considered in
relation to the colored population Of
school age. exceed the enrolment of
the white population of school age.
Compulsory Education.
Compulsory education, the commits
sioner says, forms no feature of the
southern school system. ''The arbi-
trary proceedings. he adds, (which a
compulsory attendance law suggests
its inquisitorial methods, the interfer-
ence of the state in the parental control
of children, the effect upon parents of
sending their children to school under
compulsion, in the impairment of that
self-respect which lies at the basis of
character and good citizenship would
seem to render compulsory attend
ance law an lnstrumentality to be re-
sorted to only to suppress a great and
crying evil"