The western sentinel. [volume] (Winston-Salem, N.C.) 1887-1926, 1897-07-29
PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Arguments in Favor of the Local
Taxation Act.

l
Taxation Act.
To THE VOTERS OF DISTRICT No Is,
FORSYTH Co, INCLUDING ALL OF
WINSTON TOWNSHIP OUTSIDE OF THE
CORPORATE LIMITS OF WINSTON.
FELLOW CITIZENS: We call your
attention to the local taxation act |
for public education passed by the |
last General Assembly.
This law introduces the voters of |
North Carolina to the only system of |
public education that has ever be
come Efficient in any part of our
country, viz: public education sup
ported by local taxation and under
local control. While it does not
matter what particular territory be
comes the unit for this local effort, it
is a fact that New OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES
lodged to be foremost in the matter
of public education-has always
made the township the unit
1t is fact also that the educa
tional standards of the country rep
resent excellence in proportion as
they have been stimulated by local
taxation, and that the poorest
school systems exist where the ger
eral school tax is the highest and the
local tax correspondent low. What
the locality itself does, and not what
the State does, is conceded to be the
best test of educational progress.
For example in the cities of our State
like Winston, Raleigh. Durham, Char
lotte and Goldsboro, where the local
tax is double what is now proposed
for us, the best public schools of the
State are found.
The first question to be asked ia
connection with the ma, ter Is, DO we
need it? In most of the townships of
the county such a question would be
preposterous. In our township where
the educational facilities, outside of
the public school, are OF a high order
of excellence such a question might
be allowed for sake OF argument.
1t is true that we have the S salem
Female Academy, the Salpm Boys
School, and the Slater Industrial
Academy, but do these so cover the
ground as to relieve the people OF the
| necessity and duty of providing the
free public school for all children of
| school age 8 to 10 months every
! year?
So long AS there is single child in
the township unprovided for or lett
| out, and SO long as more room and
better equipments are needed; SO
long as the very best system would
IT quire more teachers and better
teachers and longer school terms-so
long as any of this is the fact we need
| and should provide the means to
| better this condition of things
in Of l.
| the State comes forward and offers
to give us $500 if we will raise $500
| The next question, perhaps, would
be what would be the additional tax
for the average taxpayer if this law
should be ratified by tie voters =?
The following statement will show:
A man whose property is listed at
$5, 900 would pay s. 80 per year
| additional; one whose property is
listed at $4,000 would pay So 30 per
year and one whose property is listed
at 81 900 would pay 81 80 per year
additional. Perhaps half of the
voters in the townships according to
the list value of their property
would fall far below 81 900, and so
perhaps only a few, comparatively,
would pay as much as 81 additional
tax under this act
| But let us, in third place, make in
| quiry as to the benefits, especially to
the people who can send their
children nowhere else but to the fee
public school
In the first place If all our schools
in the township were given teachers
according to the school popula tion
as indicated by the last census not
one of them could run longer than
| four months. If the attendance and
not the population is calculated on
the length of the school term upon
the average could not be over five
months. One of the public schools
in the township may now run seven
or eight months, but the average for
all the schools would not be over six
months; and if all the children
according to the census should come,
as they are entitled to do and as
they shOnld be induced to do, it
would not be over four months. 1t
should not be forgotten that the
very best means of bringing out a
full attendance OF the children OF
school age are ad, Quate accommo-
dations and a thoroughly efficient
corps of teachers, while the surest
way OF driving the children away
from the public school is to allow the
accommodations to be inadequate
and uncomfortable and the teaching
f3rce to he inefficient This fact ex
plains why SO many people who are
able to do SO prefer to send their
children to private schools and pay
tuition fees many times larger than
| all the school tax rather than to
send tn. m to the public school where
| tuition is free. 1t is not so much the
name of the school. 1t is even not so
much the fear of unwholesome associ-
alton, for the children of many of the
best people of the community must
go to the free school, as their parents
can not afford to send them else
where. 1t Is not the name nor the
association SO much as the charac-
ter of the service. All the people
want is the best training for their
children, and every man without re
gard to his station is going to havp
this if he Can afford it. Therefore, il
the peoples school, that is the great
common school, is made equal to the
best, the attendance will in like
degree represent the whole school
population. For proof of all this,
study the condition of education in
Durham. Raleigh, Winston, Colds
boro and other places where the
public schools have been made equal
to the best. In community like
Salem, where educat ton has been the
watchword for well nigh century it,
is to be presumed that public senti
ment will make it. POSSIBLE for every