The age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1897-1902, 1898-12-01
The School Bills.
wandering

The committee of thirty-three teachers
prepared seven bills, putting into them the
best experience and the best judgment of
years of practical work in the education of
children Two of these bills are revenue
bills, and are, therefore, before the house
The other five were first presented in the
senate by Senator Abercrombie, and under
his guidance, four of them were promptly
passed by handsome majorities, although
the one relating to the separation and con-
secration of the school moneys was i'll
formally passed for temporary reasons.
One only was laid on the table. This was
the bill that aims to provide county super
intendents who know a good school when
they see 1t. Perhaps the chief defect of the
present system can be found at this iden-
teal point. The difference between a COM
dent-one who knows what should be
taught in the schools and how it should be
taught-and one who is half-poitician and
half merchant and farmer, is very wide
so wide that it goes farther than any other
one thing towards the wasting of the
money that the state devotes to the schools.
The county Superintendent permeates every
branch of the county schools He will put
his own men into the new board of examin-
ers He dominates the system in his coun-
ty, as he should and assuredly will There
,auto of tha
TEN unless there are first better county SUI
perintendents.
The bill that the senate has tabled pro-
vides that county superintendent shall be
appointed after October l, 1899, by the state
superintendent. He shall 'be an expert
| teacher, holding the highest certificate of
| qualification, or the legal equivalent. issued
| to teachers in his county, and shall have
been continuously engaged in the work Of
| education for not less than three years"
| He shall be under the direction and control
| of the state superintendent. 1t is an ex-
| cellent bill in every respect. 1t aims to SUBJ
stitute teachers, real bona fde teachers.
| for politicians or political heelers. 1t holds
the state superintendent responsible for any
miscarriage of the trust. There is no OBJ
| lection of a serious nature to any portion
| of the bill except the clause that defines the
| qualifications of county superintendent. 1t
would retire, 1t is said, about thirty county
superintendents-a thirty who do not
| know the fundamental requisites of a good
school.
this; it is not anything more or less than
this: Shall regard be had first for 100000
| children in the state, or for thirty county
superintendent who are presumably in
competent? A few of them may be COM
| petent but all the state knows that most
| of them are incompetent. Their very ma
| ture is shown in their power to delay a
bill that every fair-minded, intelligent man
in the state knows should become a law.
| They are politicians, every one of the
| thirty at least.
| let us hope, final Let the people In each
county speak out. Let at least something
| be done towards providing competent coun-
ty superintendent. They are the key
stones of the county systems. Don't forget
the fact that good schools cannot exist
throughout a county unless that county
has an efficient, competent and intelligent
superintendent
General Blanco threw up the sponge be.
fore the Spanish commissioners did.