The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1901-04-26

STATE SUPERINTENDENT'S DECIS-
ION ON NEW SCHOOL DIS
TRICTS LAW
CONSULTATIONS NOT LIKELY
Law lis So Framed That but Few
Districts Can AdvantageOusly
Avail Themselves of Its
Provisions.

The state superintendent of public in
struction is being subjected to "a series
of interesting inquiries respecting house
file No. 1885, which was passed by the re-
cent legislature. 1t provides for the or
ganization Of school districts by the con-
solidation of two or more adjoining dis
tricts. Many people are finding it difficult
to distinguish between certain features
of the new law and the old one, similar
in character. The chief difficulty seems
to be to decide whether the consolidated
district shall assume the liabilities of the
several districts embraced by it, CT
whether these obligations shall be borne
by each district.
Supt Olsen readily decides that the
consultations formed under the new law
will have to assume all the Liabilities Of
each of the districts absorbed, no matter
what these liabilities may be. The fact
is the bill by which the law was enacted
contains no explicit reference to tn S PRO-
vision and the superintendent concludes
that in the absence of this prov sion the
consolidation will have to bear the debts.
He bases his conclusion upon the follow
ing provision of the new law, together
with the fact that the law makes no
other reference to the subject under d s.
cussion:
Independent districts organized under
the provisions of this act shall succeed
to all the rights and be subject to all the
liabilities of the several consolidated dis
tricts etc"
This law is being COMPOUNDED with an
old statute relating to the organization
of township school districts which pro-
vides that each district or township in
the consolidation shall bear IT'S own OBJ
legations and be subject to all its separ-
ate liabilities.
While there may have been some de-
nand over the state for the new law
regulating the consolidated school dis
tricts, it is not at all doubtful that the
plan will never be very extensively oper-
ated. Serious objections would be made
| to 1t as a general practice and the rea-
sons for the objections are easily seen
when the effects of the law are studied
For instance, an Independent district is to
be organized from half dozen districts;
unless the liabilities of these districts are
nearly equal there will be some very
earnest objections when the taxpayers Of
one district, that may have been COM
paratively free from debt, are ca led upon
to share equally the obligations of their
neighbors over in an adjoining district.
Perhaps four of the districts may have
been without any cumbersome liabilities
and the other two heavily involved. The
people living in these four districts will
have to bear two districts. And It is not
a far-fetched argument to venture that
somebody will have slight complaint to
offer. Under the old law, which provides
for the organization of township districts,
as has been stated, this Objectionable
feature does not exist, as each district
bears its own debts.
The only obvious method therefore by
which this new law may ever be salts
factorily operated is by applying it when
all the districts to be consolidated are
either free from liabilities or have obliga-
tons equal In amount. Such state Of
affairs in either case will no doubt he
hard to find and the most probable re-
suit of the recent law is that it will never
become very generally used.