The sun., 1894-12-27
Nearly Five Millions for Schools.

The Board of Education's estimate OF the
sum It required for expenditures on the
public schools during the coming year, was
Sb, 1877, 800. The Board of Estimate and
Apportionment has allowed It -, ,982, ,423,
which Is S82S, 1888 more than IL received for
the present year.
Nearly %, 900, 900 is an enormous sum to
spend on the public schools in q single year.
This vast amount Of money, moreover, is
appropriated for the maintenance Of q system
of education which is antiquated and in
effective. It's expenditure is intrusted to q
cumbersome body of school officers, trustees,
inspectors, and commissioners created by o
tumble Of laws in which responsibility
n divided hopelessly; and there is always q
conflict Of authority. The machinery Is
complicated and necessarily works with
constant friction. The engineers, with very
few exceptions, have no training which fits
them to run it. Most Of them are merely
ornamental functionaries, who take the
places because Of the measure Of distinction
they confer, and whose services generally
are as valueless as such unpaid public labors
usually are.
Five millions of dollars q year Is a vast
amount Of money to intrust to n body 80
disjointed yet It will go on increasing
steadily as the town grows In population.
IL Is not enough under the present system,
a. experience proves, to provide sufficiency
Of school accommodations to meet the devel-
opment of the districts Of the town
where the growth is most rapid,
and hence the multiplication Of school
houses and Of teachers must go on con-
tipynnnaIv hat 70 ha
preparations for the Board OF Education
will increase until at a time not distant
they will be ten millions instead of
FIVE millions. Meantime the system of
instruction Is not less complicated
and top-heavy than the system of
administration under which it Is devised II
follows no consistent theory of public edu-
cation, and is without homogeneity. 1t is
the product OF ignorance, empiricism, care
lessness, and whimsicality; yet it now costs
fve millions Of dollars a year, and the ex-
pense Is continually increasing.
A Commission appointed by the Legis-
iature examined the hodge-podge of laws
under which this complicated machinery OF
education has grown up, and after long and
thorough investigation recommended the
substitution OF a more scientific system,
by which, with greater simplicity and
the proper concentration OF RESPONSE
bility, more efficiency and closer econ
omy would be possible. The bill which
it framed, and which IL advocated in a
very able report, WAS tossed aside by the
Legislature, and the old system was left un-
changed In all it's deformity. The enormous
expenditure goes on and the money con-
tinues to be dispensed for the maintenance
of the machinery, whose necessary and es-
sential weakness and incapacity were ex-
planned and exposed by this Commission.
Mr.. STEPHEN II. OLIS, one of the members
of the Commission, who gave to its task the
most intelligent assistance, has lately ex-
pressed the confident opinion that remedy
for this grievous wrong against the people
of New York, both the children and those
who pay so enormously for their instruc-
tion, will be provided by the incoming Legis-
lature. He has also devoted careful attention
20 the law proposed by the Commission,
with q view TO making it still more effective
for its purpose, so that there might be no
excuse for the further neglect OF the Legis-
laturs to relieve this city from the burden
and extortion Of the bungling and illogical
school system under which it now suffers.
We hope Mr.. oLIS is not too sanguine
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