New-York tribune., 1889-12-19
COMPULSORY EDUC4TION.

Il tfs to be assumed that the friends of educa-
tion in this State will make another effort at
the next session of the Legislature to secure tho
passage of a good, practical Compulsory Ed
ucation Act. The existing law on that subject
is dead letter for several reasons, the chief of
which is that no adequate means are provided
for its enforcement. For many years the
superintendent of Public instruction in his
annual reports has directed the attention of
the Legislature to the necessity of superseding
this worse than useless law with one which
should be in fact as well as name compulsory.
He has submitted figures showing that New
York is going backward instead of forward
in educational work that L" the total attend
ance upon the public schoOls''-we quote from
his last report" when compared with the whole
number of children of school age has grown
less and less with strange uniformity"
An earnest and well-cOnsidered attempt was
made last winter to put an end to this public
disgrace, this menace of the general veal A
bill which had been prepared by the school
superintendents, and had the approval of the
Superintendent of Public Instruction, passed
both houses Ii met with considerable Oppos
tion, however and the Governor vetoed it.
The arguments which were urged against it
proceeded, as we thought, upon forced con-
struction of some of its provisions, the alarm
lists taking the ground that its enforcement
might embarrass the cause of education as car
ried on in the family and the private school.
The bill will be revived this winter, and pos
sibly will be so amended as to make it ac
ceptable to those who were responsible for its
1afa I'm tho r1rocopution of this
good work every teacher, whether engaged in
public or private school, or in the narrow
limits of the family circle should lend hand.
Every enlightened, public-spirited educator will
esteem it his privilege as well as his duty, to
help remove the grave reproach which now
rests upon the State in the absence of a genuine
compulsory law.
An interesting article on this subject from
the pen of Judge Draper, the Superintendent
of Public Instruction, appears in 1.-The Troy
Times' of Saturday. He argues that a new
law must be passed, and passed promptly-the
longer the delay the greater the danger to the
pubIic-and that in order to be effective it must
contain these provisions:
1. Must specify the ages between which and
months OF the year within which children must be I'm
some school, either public private, Of suitable char
acter unless excused therefrOm for sufficient
by official authority.
@ Parents and guardians must be made responsible
for sending children to school, and must be punished
sufficiently TO insure compliance with the requirements
OF the statute.
g. Special institutions must be provided for thor
ouChIy vicious and incorrgible cases which cannot
safely be received into the ordinary schools.
A. The law must set up the machinery for securing
and keeping continuously perfect census of children
NJ school age In each city district, and IL must
vide and pay officers to look up and account for each
child and to execute all the provisions of the statute
There is nothing sweeping in these four
propositions, nothing which would work an in
iustice to any schoolteacher, nothing which
can be dispensed with if the law is to prove
efficacious. 1t is to be hoped that the new bill
will be introduced at an early day of the next
session. and that its friends will not rest until
il reaches the statute-book. To assume that
the people of New-Yorll do not demand the
speedy passage of Compulsory Education Act
is TO assume that they are willing that portion
of the rising generation of the State should
orow up in ignorance and vice.