The Newberry herald and news. (Newberry, S.C.) 1884-1903, 1902-01-10
The MATTER. OF The
COUNTY HIGH SCHOOLS.
'SUPT. McMAHAN PRESENTS PRACEI-
CAL SUGGESTIONS.
General Act is Not Yet Needed--But County
Boards Should be Given Power to
Meet the Demand for High
Schools.
The State, 9th.

has the following to say in the mat
ter of county high schools:
"In many counties the town school
is attended in it's higher grades by
pupils from country districts, who
in some cases las in Orangeburg
and Union) are admitted free of tut.
ton by the generous action of the
city board, but generally are requir
ed to pay tuition. In either case the
limit of capacity to admit pupils is
being reached or has been reached
in many towns-especially in those
that have granted the privilege with,
out the barrier of tuition chargs g.
What is to be done to supply the de-
mand for high school education
Moreover, many smaller towns have
never yet been able to provide a high
school department for their OWL
children, and consequently in some
counties there is not even this begin
ming of high school accessible tc
the children of the country. If the
law provided machinery by which
town and country-county, in short
could unite in establishing and
supporting such a school, it would at
once become attainable in many
places where now the need of it has
come to be sorely felt. Indeed, we
have reached the time when some
counties have developed sentiment
in favor of providing high school ed
ucation for all children from town OF
country, who will attend. The
county board of Anderson, for exam
pie, in the person of County Super
intendent r. E. Nicholson and City
Superintendent T. G. Walton, have
been agitating for a year the estab'
lishment of a county high school, tc
serve the city as we'll as the country
They have called meetings of the
school trustees of the county and &C.
cured cooperation looking to com
bined contribution of public funds
for this end. But mere voluntary
cooperation of boards liable to con
stant change Of membership will not
suffice. A simple enactment that the
county board may reserve and apply
in it's discretion 10 per cent. of the
school fund would suffice. It would
give in Anderson more than So, 600.
| While that board would use the fund
of high school, board in county
not yet ready for high school might
use small sum to assist in supplying
good teachers to specially backward
or poor communities, or might think
best not to exercise it's power to sci
aside and expend part of the schoo
fund.
"It would be best to attempt nc
distinct legislation on the subject oI
high schools. An elaborate system
created by law for all counties al
this time would De positively hurtfu
a aste of money which is sadly
needed in the country school dis
:ricts. In any definite Legislation
there would be danger of forcing
prematurely high school upon some
county not yet prepared for it. Al
that is needed is to strengthen th'
hands of the county boards, by thu
several safeguards and powers sug
gested above, and these boards viii
establish the necessary high schools
as soon as local conditions can be de
veloped to warrant them: The count.
board would thus be, as it should be
the governing board of the couut.
high school. The county superin
tendent, employed by the count.
board, would have general oversight
of the county high school, as of al
the other schools in the county.
In some counties these school
would serve for the better prepara
ton of local school teachers, unit
that distant day when the college
and the normal schools shall suffic
to supply trained teachers for all tn
schools of the country. In som
counties these high schools woul'
take the form OF industrial school
for boys and girls satisfying some
what the craving that Clemson an