Evening star., 1900-10-27
Compulsory school Law.
he Editor of The Evening Star;


I notice in The Star that the school board
is going to ask for a compulsory school
law and officers to enforce it, very proper
| thing, indeed; but how is such a law to be
enforced without sufficient school buildings
to hold the children?
1t is safe to say that there are several
thousand children in the District who
ought to attend school, but do not Last
year We had over $50 halliday schools
many of which were so held because there
were not enough buildings to have fulI-day
schools. How, then. are these additional
thousands to be accommodated without a
large increase in the number of school
buildings?
In this connection 1t may not be amiss to
call attention to the act Of June 25 1864
which imposes a penalty of $40 on each
parent or guardian who fails to send each
| child between the ages of eight and four
| teen years to school at least twelve weeks
| six of which shall be consecutive each
year, and which authorizes the school
| board to arrange for ascertaining whether
there are any who ought to attend and do
| not, and to enforce their attendance, if any
| such there are. That law has never been
| repealed. and its existence was unknown to
| at least two successive commissioners until
l called their attention to it. In fact it
seemed to be unknown to the public for not
| only were articles published in the Repub-
| lican and The Star urging the enactment of
| a compulsory law. but at the request of
] the w. 4. l. u. senator ingalls, introduced
| a bill for that purpose in the Senate some
years ago.
No attempt has ever been made to en-
| force the law of 1864 simply because there
were not sufficient school buildings for
| those who did attend. In 1856 we had r.
600 more children on the school roll than
there were school seats in the District and
though condition in that respect has
improved of late years, yet 1t is manifest
| that a compulsory law will be of no avail
without considerable increase in the num-
Der of buildings. The supply of school
buildings has always been behind the needs
Of the population, and as The Star states
that the estimate for schools for the COM
ing year will be about s2,00e. 900. which is
considerably more than one-fourth of the
entire revenues of the District 1 fear it
will be impossible to secure from Congress
the necessary appropriations for the num-
Der of school buildings needed; and es-
pecialy so in view of the statements in
the press that strenuous effort will be
| made this session to secure much larger
appropriations for suburban improvements
| on the ground that the city has been fully
provided for.
AS showing how little is known outside
in regard to the District only yesterday L
picked up a paper published in the west,
which contains the following. apparently
| written by some one residing here:
"It seems to me strange fact that edu-
cational facilities at the national capital
do not keep pace with national progress,
and that city which should set an exam
pie in this and some other particulars
should loaf along at the end of the pro-
cession content to do only moderately well.
It's time to build more school houses in the
District of Columbia, and hope the near
future will see this work well under way"
In this wish we can all Join him, and also
| in the hope that when he again writes for
the outside press he will be more explicit
as to the reasons why. and not, as in this
case, lead the outside public who know
| little or nothing OF District affairs and con-
ditions to suppose that the lack of school
facilities Is the fault of the citizens of ---e
District, for 1t Is not. w. c. DODGE.