The Jersey City news., 1899-12-18

aAs true schoolmen," he said. we
should oppose this bill because 1t is dan
gerous to the interests Of every schoo
child of this State. As educators we
should forget our privileges and think OF
their rights The bill is bad. I believe
because it is trying TO introduce into the
educational machine an element which
heretofore everyone has tried to keep out
Politics and education never have and
never can walk hand in hand. The bill In
the second place is bad because it fails
to provide tenure of office for some Of the
employees. This I believe is wrong. To
my view every teacher and janitor should
be treated just the same as are the police
and firemen. The bill if passed would
establish a high mogu over the entire
school system, who would not need to
have the certificates of examination that
ne grants to those subordinate TO him.
1.-THE bill itself was drawn by a COM
nittee comprising two members of the
! State Board of Education and an ex-
member of the same Board. Why these
three men should dictate how every Board
in every municipality should be managed
am unable to understand. Local talent
should come in for something. Home ac-
quaintance should have some weight. As
general rule members Of the State
Board of Education are no better than
members of local Boards"
with the possible exception of Mr..
Forbes" here interposed Mayor Pagan.
"He is surely an exception because he
lives in Hoboken. Iaughter.)
Mr.. Chamberlain interrupted Mr.. Null
yaney when the latter referred to teach
ers' institutes by remarking that he
thought there should be a provision in
the bill allotting more time to them.
ssThat is true" said Mr.. Mulvaney, 80
| far as the rural school districts are con-
cerned. In the bigger cities, however. 1
think every one will agree that theysare
a useless expense"
In objecting to section nine of the bill
which provides that the State Supsrin-
| tendent and Secretary of the State Board
of Education should be members
| of all Boards OF Examiners, the speaker
| said
Here is more interference with local
rights. 1 hold that the different Boards
of Examiners are fully competent to pass
| on the teachers they require for their
own schools and I see no reason why a
member of the State Board should have
any cOntIOI OF d lOSd4 Dual u > NSSt~-o-
| IN this respect"
Mr. Forbes thought the idea OF TINS
provision of the bill was to get the
with the different Boards of Examiners.
THAT may be-" agreed Mr.. Mulvaney,
| ''but 1 doubt it, The other provisions OF
the bill do not display any such motives.
They are all Interior. In fact one has 10
pause at its entirety to see what a fne
conception it really is" (Sarcast st1callyJ
| 'sOne provision reads all right, but when
you come to the next one 1t mod1ties the
first, and unless everything is considered
and compared relatively it's all a Jumple
Mr.. Benny agreed with the speaker. He
said the one great fault he found with the
bill was that 1t did not treat any one sub
| ject exhaustively.
Continuing, Mr.. Mulvaney objected to
the bill because it gave to the State Super
! intendent supervision over the construc-
ton of school buildings. I'VE have built
so many schools in Jersey City within the
past year" he said, that our Superin-
| tendent has become an expert in school
architecture But where in general will
| you find a superintendent who knows any
thing about the technical points OF a
school building? The bill would be better
in this respect if it provided for the busi-
ness manager, an architect. looking after
! this work.
"The State Superintendent. under the
provisions of this bill, would be practically
a fixture. He could not be removed. A
| business manager would be good thing
! to have in every local board. but repeat
he should be an architect.
Mr.. Stuhr said that the present way of
fixing the State Superintendent's term of
office by statute was good one, and
Mayor Pagan took occasion to remark
that the Hoboken board always got along
without a business manager.
1--WE have an architect. though, and find
him a very convenient and valuable man., =
his Honor added.
.'The bill might be amended so as 10
make the appointment of business mana
ger optional with the local boards" sug-
gested Mr.. Mulvaney. ut certainly would
be a good office in many instances"
! Mayor Pagan said loosely: There are
so many chaps looking for places nova
days though, that they would insist on
the appointment being made"
| Mr.. Mulvaney replied: 1--WE don't do
things that way In Jersey City
Mayor Fagan retorted: 'Oh, no; you
| don't do anything wrong over there. I
confess we haven't any places going a
begging in Hoboken."
I've been looking around for stray
one In Bayonne too. but have not been
able to dig it up yeti said Mr.. Benny.
| causing more laughter.
Referring to the hiring Of architects, Mr..
Mulvaney said there was no law provid-
ing for that office, although there was no
law prohibiting it.
I'm Jersey City the thing has caused
some disturbance" he said. I'VE went
to the Finance Board and had one ap-
pointed. The scheme worked nicely for
a time till the Finance Board had a
bricklayer appointed. That caused a big
kick and ended our experience with archi-
tects."
Reverting to another section of the bill.
Mr.. Mulvaney thought two-thirds vote
Of a local board ought to determine
whether that board wanted teacher or
not
The same ought to apply to the hir-
ing of local superintendent" said Mr..
Chamberlain. s'It's matter of purely
local interest"
It was past five o'clock at this juno
ture of the discussion and Mr.. Stuhr in
terrupted Mr.. Mulvaney as he was about
to open his guns Of protest against an
other section Of the bill