Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1899-01-07

the $4,000 asked for the erection and
equipment of the building will be sufficient.
A model building should be erected at the
national capital, which should be equal, il
not superior, to any in other progressive
cities of the country, to meet the present
and future demands for this important
branch Of public education.
Increase in Population Noted.
'The rapidly increasing population of the
| District and the laudable interest by all
classes of our citizens in public education
of necessity create an increasing demand
| for school facilities This demand should
be met without besitancy, to the end that
appropriations sufficiently liberal shall be
made, that no one within our borders shall
be denied or abridged in school facilities,
from the age the child receives its first i'm
pressions to the point at which those i'm
pressions justify and fit the child for active
| life.
THE state should not only furnish public
education to all who knock at the school
house door, but enforce it by compulsory
laws, to the end that no child shall be per-
| mitted to grow up in ignorance.
Your committee are gratifed and proud
to report that year by year school facilities
have increased. bringing better equipped
buildings, improved methods of teaching
with an able corps of teachers. We are not
ashamed of any part of our system of edu-
cation, but are Whining to compare it with
any other locality in our country. Good
as it is. there is. however, need and press
| ing necessity for greater facilities. While
it may be affirmed that in this District
children have not been denied school facili-
| ties by reason of lack of room, still 1t must
be said that in some instances Children
have not been able to have proper facilities
| on account of this lack Of room.
Lack of Room.
Even taking the system as it now exists,
| it calls for two sessions per day in all the
grades except the first and second. Owing
| to lack of room, it is found practicable to
extend school facilities to children in the
| third and fourth grades in some instances
| only by having halliday schools 1t is far
better that the erection of school buildings
| should be in advance of the school popu-
! lation. In other words, it is better to
| have too much room than to have not
| enough. If we had an enforceable compul-
sorry law, we should have, that, every
| child should receive for certain number
| of days in each year either public or prl-
vate schooling, We would be greatly lacking
| in room. AS it is there should be no
abridgement in facilities for daily attend
ance in the first six grades; if any shall
| suffer for want of room (Which we hope in
| the future will not be the case) let it be
| those in the higher grades.
Your committee, in its investigations of
| public instruction, have received, in answer
! to certain inquiries, replies from the super
| intendents of public schools in twenty-five
| cities in different sections of the country,
and in none of them are nonresident chill
| dren allowed to attend without the pay
| ment of cost of tuition or stated sums from
| SO to 500 per school year, or an average of
about S35 per year: Worcester, Mass. the
| lowest; Chicago and Alexandria the high
est-S60.
The District of Columbia seems to be the
one exception (and that without authority
| of law where non-residents are permitted
| to attend our schools Several hundred are
| now attending, not only the graded, but the
high, manual training and commercial
schools. Unquestionably we should We.
come to our schools all children that per-
manently or temporarily reside here.
Whether we should throw open our school
doors for the free education of those who
reside not for a single day here, but come
and go daily from their homes in neigh
boring states, is d question worthy of con-
sideration.
Estimates Approved.
Your committee approves and recon-
| mends the Endorsement of the board of
trade of the estimates made by the board
of school trustees, and approved by the
District Commissioners, to be submitted to
Congress. The creation of the Office of
assistant superintendent, to look after the
vast property and business interests of the
schools, as asked for. is absolutely neces-
sary. as all the time of the superintendent
| is required, and should be given, to the
purely educational part.
The increased pay for the supervising
principals; fer increase in number of teach
| erS thirty-six in alb: an increased appro-
| priation for the teachers of night schools;
| all are approved. The small appropriation
| for the kindergarten last year was only
sufficient to initiate the work. An appro-
priation of $4,000 should be made to put it
| upon permanent basis.
The $4,000 asked for repairs to school
| buildings will all be required to put and
| keep them in proper repair and sanitary
ton
| manual training school building should be
| early appropriated by Congress and made
| Immediately available. The new school
| buildings asked for are needed: the full
amount of the appropriation asked for each
building should be granted-not reduced
| as in many cases heretofore-with the re-
| suit that lots of limited dimensions for
buildings had to be procured with insuffi-
| cient ground about them for proper light
ventilation and yards for the children dur
| ing their recreation. An appropriation for
| a colored manual training school should be
| made.
Request for Appropriations.
Let us ask of our legislators in Congress
| to grant us sufficient appropria tons to
complete our system of education not ex-
| travagantly, but economically administered
| with justice to teacher and child-asking
! for nothing more and to be satisfied with
| nothing less-the more children in school
The chairman of Your committee desires
| to state that his associates, by their zeal
and industry, have submitted many facts
and matter of interest relative to the sys-
| tenn of public education that merit consid-
Grafton, but if considered here would en-
large this report at too great length, but
are worthy of discussion at a public meet
| ing of the board of trade"
| In the discussion which followed refer
| ence was made by Mr.. w. A. Meloy to the
children of non-residents in the public
schools, and it was stated that that fact
might be used as an argument for greater
| liberality in the appropriations for the sup
port of the public schools.
A series of stereopticon views of school
| buildings and other features of the public
school system were then shown on a screen
and explained in an interesting way by Mr..
Singleton who stated that the aim was to
demonstrate to the board what was being
| done in the schools. Mr.. Singletons re-
marks We're listened to with great interest
| The time and attention which he had evil
IDENTIFY given to the matter were appreciated
| by his audience.
Manual Training.
After showing views of the interior and
exterior of school buildings in this city he
| spoke of the efforts made to secure for the
| city an adequate building for the manual
| fra