The Montgomery advertiser., 1901-06-02
THE SCHOOL FUND.
The Injustice of Division Upon .
 "Tax" Paid Basis.

"Tax" Paid Basis.
 Editor The Advertiser:
 There have now been put before the
 members of the Constitutional Conven-
 tion and referred to it's Educational
 Committee, a number of ordinances
 looking toward . redistribution of the
 school fund of the State. While these
 ordinances differ in detail, they have
 a common object.--that of dividing the
 public appropriations for educational
 purposes between the white and black
 races in proportion to the amount of
 taxes paid by each. There is a sound
 of justice in the very words in which
 such proposal must be couched which challenges attention. though the atten-
 ton SO aroused may find in 1t. at fast,
 more of injustice than of justice. But
 the question of abstract justice for our two races in Alabama is well-nigh the most difficult one that can be brought before us. There is unfortun- ately a simpler question, and one which
 We may reasonably hope to discuss from more nearly common ground. and to settle at last with assured agree ment. That is the question of expedi- ency. Real expediency has many times before now led the way to real justice. "
 The question--the only question-in apportioning the school funds. is what is for the best and ultimate advant- age of the State? Any such redistri- button of public moneys as is proposed will have the immediate effect of re- ducing the numbe. of free schools for negroes. the length of their school terms and the quality of their teach CTS. So the question becomes: Is it for the good of the State that these changes shall take place.-will 1t ben eft us more as a community if 95 per cent. of the school fund Is applied to the use of schools for white children and per cent. to the schools for col ored children, than if we continue to apply the fund in about its present proportions?
 If we are slow to agree in our an- swers to this question, 1t may be be- cause so many even of the most intel ligent and cultivated people have failed to apprehend both the purpose and the effect of the public school. We speak of 1t as place merely of instruction, as an institution whose chief end is the medication of knowledge of books. of ability to read, write, and cipher. But neither reading, writing nor ciphering, as distinguished mem. Der of the Constitutional Convention has reminded us, makes of necessity a good citizen; and if the imparting of these accomplishments were the sole business of public school the State could hardly afford to support public schools at all. What the school.-not merely the best school but the fairly respectable school as well,-must be. In order to deserve any public support whatever is outlined by our present Commissioner of Education in these words: The ordinary type of school the so-called common school-receives the child from the family at the age of or 6 years. It receives him into a social body (for the school is a community and educates him by dis cipline' and instruction,' as they are Technically called. By discipline is meant the training in behavior, training of the will. moral training. It consists in imposing upon the child a set of forms of behavior rendered necessary in order to secure concert punctuality, silence and industry. These are the four cardinal duties of the school pupil. They underlie all higher ethics. The school could not possibly undertake a more direct and efficient training of the child for social combination than it does undertake. in its four cardinal phases of discipline regularity, punctuality, silence and in- dustry."
 Now that Is what every public school is primarily meant to do-to train chill dren for life in the community; in 50 far as it fails in this end 1t wholly fails. no matter how learnedly it's grad. uates may chatter. Insofar as 1t suc- ceeds in this end it wholly succeeds, for all other success will surely fol- low. Its success in this end is its only Justification for the use of public funds
 To bring the question home, Is 1t to our advantage to give the negro child in Alabama the training for citizenship which such public school affords? Is it the white child or the negro whose home training is more deficient Tn those qualities which fit him for useful life in the community? Are regularity. punctuality, silence and in- dustry mere easily acquired in the cabin OH which no tax Is paid than in the "big house" in whose shadow It stands? Are two months in the year better than four. to give the rudiments of the community virtues to the child who is free to be wholly irregular, un- punctual, unindustrious, and very far from silent for the other ten months? And if negro schools as we know them have not always proved their ability to inculcate these virtues are we sure that scattering the school houses more widely and shortening the term are the sure remedies? Above all, are we sure that the teacher whose services can be obtained for $10 month is more likely to train children to the capacity for good citizenship than the man or woman whose market value is twice or three times that amount? For here We come to the vital and terribly seri-