The people's journal. (Pickens, S.C.) 1891-1903, 1903-01-08

| StaiS 10 UTIuf
| up the schools to this minimum ses
| sion. yet the foregoing statistics show
that the law has failed to accomplish
It's purpose. The law does not require
! the trustees to apply the money to the
! schools that need II.
In my report OF 1899 called atten
tion to the need OF safeguards against
| the unnecessary multiplying Ol
schools to be thus aided by the State
Some districts support several schools
| and apply the funds in very different
proportions to the different schools
The constitutional provision that
each county board should lay of its
county into convenient school dis
tricts Of not less than nine more than
40 square miles has been carried out
in very few counties. It's spirit and
purpose, though ont its letter, was
that each district should support but
one school for the white and one for
the negroes, each to be centrally To-
Gated. In some counties the districts
are still townships, so large that they
must support several schools. some
OF which the trustees are not inter
cSted in and shamefully neglect.
while some are entirely too near to
others.
Moreover. a three months school
with $75 teacher can hardly be called
school. Necessarily the trustees
have little choice of teachers With
tho acQuicsccncc of tho county super
intendents they sometimes employ
teachers without certificates of quail
fcation and unable to pass the re-
uuircd examinations. But in some
counties there is an ample supply OF
incompetcnts holding the county Ger
tihcatcS. Although. the trustees OF
short term schools are in tho habit oil
employing very poor teachers. Tor
whom it should not be the policy or
the State to furnish longer sessions.
Aid from the State should be granted
not merely upon a showing of pov-
erty. but upon the guarantee Of prop
er location Of the school and the en-
ploymcnt Of thoroughly capable
teacher. Better far to aid few
less effectively.
A Legislative appropriation to the
schools should be based upon Il gen
Gral law with safeguards along these
lines. The teacher whose salary is
supplemented should be required 70
have certificate of qualification from
the State board of education iSSucd
upon examination or upon the diploma
of an approved collcgc). The school
should be in district supporting but
ono school for each race, or the school
should not be less than four miles
from every other which the pupils
might attend, and if it's enrolment be
less than 20 pupils it's distance from
every other school open to its children
should be not less than five miles. or
specially justified by swamps or other
peculiar conditions reported by the
county board and approved by the
state board). The county board should
furnish n list Of it's schools fulfilling
the conditions in teacher. location.
enrolment and financial inability. the
latter fact being certified also by the
county treasurer on March 18th. af-
ter the collection of taxes has been
completed and the funds Of the dis
trict for the current scholastic year
are northumberland. I'm the case Of
the needy districts, exhausted. The
names Of the teachers and the
amounts, to be paid them should be
certified to the State treasurer by the
state superintendent of education on
behalf of the State board Of cduca-
tion. Tho States aid should be Sutti
cicnt to bring up the salaries to $50
a month for six months.
AT the beginning of this policy nOr
many schools would be able to avail
themselves OF the prolfcrcd assist
ancc. Under the strong inducemcnt to
conform to the conditions. trustees
would be stirred from present indi
ference and errors. There would be 4
rcadiustment in the location Of schools
which would greatly strengihcn 0lh-
cr%. In the end comparatively small
number would need the Legislative
bounty. The country school problem
would be largely solved.
or course these results couiu be
much better realized with better com.
" management Of schools. State aid
10 weak schools would be for many
reasons uMWiSc without strong man
aG"nrnt and expert supervision i'll
zach county.