The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-01-11
Hamden and New Haven school Mat

the fee to be required OF Hamden pu-
| pills, as well as the report of the Ham
den town meeting. by a close vote 1t
| was decided to pay out OF the town
treasury sixty dollars instead OF thirty
| dollars for pupils in the Boardmah
| school. A change of ten votes from the
| affirmative to the negative would nave
| kept the amount at thirty dollars. The
| fear of litigation against the town and
| the presence of voters who were NOT
| taxpayers, and therefore indifferent,
easily explains the unfortunate result,
for now $1,000, which ought to be spent
on seven hundred pupils in the elemen-
| tary grammar schools of the town, IS
| to be spent on twenty favored pupils Tor
! tuition in the Boardman school, whose
parents gould probably better pay 1t
out of their own pockets than a good
| many of those who are forced by taxa
ton to pay 1t.
Let us examine from the point of
view Of Hamden and New Haven this
Illustration of the working Of an UNJUST
law, Which was enacted three years
ago. I have visited Hamden recently
to inquire about this matter and learned
some pertinent facts, which confirm the
conclusions stated in my former letter.
The elementary schools OF the town
badly need this $1,000 in order to tone
them UP to a proper standard. Ihe
scho0l-house near the WhltneyVllle
church Is considered by unbiased judges
a discredit to the town and new one
Is needed in its place at once, None OF
the schools in the town, | am informed
on good authority, is maintained UP to
standard equal to the eighth grade OF
the New Haven schools. Consequently
it is very doubtful if pupil directly
from the Hamden schools could pass
the examination which New Haven
pupils pass in order to get their celtifi-
cate for admission to the Boardman
school 1t is even said that the twenty
who went in from Hamden two years
ago were admitted without any exanl-
nation. II this is so, it would seem that
just and proper rule of the board had
been broken.
Not only, then, will the few favored
pupils be benefited, instead of the
many but the childless taxpayers. or
those who find it hard to support their
children above the age of fifteen or
who need them at home to help on the
farm, will be taxed to pay for the edu-
cation Of the children of those who can
easily support their children above the
age Of fifteen, This certainly is neither
just nor fair The widow or the in
valid farmer who must have his boys to
help him run his farm should not be
called upon to furnish higher education
to the man, possibly not a taxpayer,
who has good businessl and can af-
ford to keep his boys at school
Who pays this tuition bill for the ia
vored twenty? The taxpayers Of the
town of Hamdelf But this unjust law
provides that the town may be reiin-
bursed out OF the state treasury to an
amount not exceeding thirty dollars per /
pupil SO Handen taxpayers will pay
one half of the sixty dollars and the
other half will come out of the state
treasury.
Whose money is it which comes out OF
the state treasury to pay this tuition?
The four largest sources Of revenue for I
the state are the steam roads and the I
trolley roads, the savings banks, the |
mutual life insurance companies and (
the military Communication tax. 50 It I
will be the money of stockholders in I
railroads, or savings bank depositors, or I
policy holders in mutual insurance
companies. or citizens in different parts
of the state, who will pay this tuition
bill in part IF the matter should be in
vestigated, it would probably be found
that some persons who pay no money
to the tax collector Of Hamden are hav-
lug their children educated at the
I3oardman school without any expense
to themselves. but at the expense of
soma citizens of Hamden who pay taxes,
and of citizens OF Connecticut and
many other states who hold insurance
policies in the mutual insurance COM
panies.
Every reasonable man must allow
that this system il open to the chal-
lenge of being unjust, and is possibly in
violation Of the first section of the con-
5titution of Connecticut, which says
that mo man or set of men are entitled
to exclusive public emoluments or priv
leges from the community
For more reasons than one 1t is UNI
that the last town meeting
aid not stick to thirty dollars as its
limit of payment. 1t would be interest
ing to see how many parents of the IA
yored pupils would have paid the extra
thirty dollars out of their own pockets
"a ther than take their children out of
school, 1T Is safe to say that eighty
per cent. would have paid the tuition
pill when they found that their own
lust debt could not be shifted upon the
hOulders of others
Would it not be iu$t as fair to ask
hat the town of Hander should pay {
nut of its treasury for the college edu-
lation and professional education of {
iome favored boys or girls, or to buy
heir clothing or Christmas presents, as
t is to insist that the town of Hamden ,
,hould give them technical education /
1t the Boardman school at the expense ,
If the taxpayers? '
I have tried to show the injustice of {
his appropriation of 81, zoo to all the
itzens of Hamden, except the parents I
f the favored pupils, who get some 7
hing at the public expense which they /
ught to pay for out of their own pock-
is.
My attention has also been called to