The Hawaiian star. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu]) 1893-1912, 1899-06-03
ELECTION Is CALLED OFF THE RAILWAY FRANCHISE REPORT ON FREE SCHOOLS
REASONS OF THE COMMITTEE OF
THREE
The Fee Acted as a Hindrance to Sc
lection Based on Stated Qualifica-
tion-How the Fee System Arose.

tion-How the Fee System Arose.
The following is the full text of the
report upon the fee system drawn up
by th.s committee of three;
To the Honorable Commissioners of
Public instruction of the Republic of
Hawaii:-Your Committee appointed
Thursday, April 27th, 1899, to reporr
on select schools in the Hawliiln Isl
ands beg leave to submit the following
report and recommendations
EARLY SCHOOL SYSTEM.
The year 1S41 marks the first AT
tempt of the government to establish
a regular system of free schools. Up
to that time the schools were support
ed in part by missionaries but mostly
by individual chiefs. The native lam
guage was the medium of instruction
and the schools were taught by latiye
teachers. About the same time fam
lily school for young chiefs of boyh
sexes was established in Honolulu in
which English was the sole medi i'm
of instruction. This school ten yea IS
later developed into the present Roy
al School. From these two sources
school,, free school taught in la.
waiian by Hawaiian teachers and the
'select school, taught in English in
which tuition fee was charged for
the double purpose of selection and
revenue.
THE COMMON AND SELECT
SCHOOL.
In 1858, these two kinds of schools
we're in operation side by side. From
this time on, however, the common
schools, laboring under the disadvan-
tage of inefficient teachers and the de-
sire of the natives themselves to learn
the language which was rapidly sup
erseding their own, steadily declined
until the Legislation in 1896 provided
that ''the English language shall be
the medium and basis of instruction
in all public and private schools
In thesmeantime. with the growing
prosperity of the country and under
the care of good teachers, select
schools steadily increased. In 1888.
however, when the Legislature abb
olished fees in all schools with one eX-
ceptioh, the Fort Street School, the
prototypeS Of the present High School.
and in 1896 made English the medi-
um of instruction in all schools, our
schools both common and ''select
became free common schools taught in
English.
OUR PRESENT SELECT SCHOOLS.
The select schools of today are
therefore the one remaining example
of the old pay school. They consist
of the Honolulu High School; the
Kaakopua school under Miss Coursen
which is preparatory thereto; a small
| school at Kohala and small school
! at Hilo. They were saved from the
sweeping effect of the Act of 1888, to
| fill the need in our cosmopolitan COM
munity of select schools for the chill
dren of such as desired them.
! These schools are taught in English
and charge so cents per week as n
tuition fee for attendance. They diff
! fer from the free English schools of
today in that they are schools taught
in English rather than schools in
which English is taught.
THE POINT IN ISSUE.
The point in issue before your COM
mittee is the utility of the so cent tut
tion fee in select schools and we beg
to submit our views under three
heads:-
/. The utility of the so cent tuition
fee as basis of selection; 2. its utility
as a means of revenue; 3. it's real
effect in our schools
UTILITY AS A BASIS OF SELEC-
TION.
If selection were based on the fee
alone, independent of all considera-
tions, any one could claim a right to
enter our select schools upon tender
| g 60 10
tai, moral and health qualifications
alone were the basis of selection, nc
one could enter upon any other
ground of qualification. No one found
deficient in the last stated qualifica-
tions should be admitted because OF
ability to pay the fee; and no one
found eligible therein should be eX-
cluded for inability to pay the fee
The standard of the school cannot
rest upon the fee but on the stated
qualifications. Your committee, there
fore, consider the fee as n means OF
selection, relatively ineffective and
wholly undesirable.
UTILITY AS A MEANS OF REVE.
NUE..
With the first establishment of Sc
lect schools arose the very serious
| Oii tiNtOuhb vi
salaries commanded by English over
Hawaiian teachers, of maintaining
such schools. AT that time the tuition
fee was not charged from the stand
point of selection. Afterward it haC
the effect of selection, and at the same
time provided means of support fol
these schools. But in the onward
movement TO free schools, its use as 9
means of selection became predomi
nant over it's use as n means of reve
nue..
In 1854 the Board of Education
found it expedient in the general pros
perity of the country to recommen6
that select schools be made free OF
the ground that this will contribute
more than anything else can be pro
mote the prosperity and growth of on
public school system" In 1885 th'
| u a.. II, IN. nj