The Hood River glacier. (Hood River, Or.) 1889-1933, 1906-02-22

supervision where we now have little
or none; longer school term; better
principals aud better teachers because
closely supervised; better class inter
est and better results because of uni
torn grade and classification where
the plan has been tried it has result
ed in at least a 25 per cent increase
in attendance in the lower grades,
due to the influence of good high
school; pupils given the advantages of
a first class high school course at home
for small fraction of the expense of
sending them away from home, and
far more important than the cost in
volved is the fact that they would be
at home every night or at least from
Friday evening till Monday morning
and where parents would be in con-
stant telephone communication at all
| times; a fair chance for the eighth
grade graduate from the country
schools with the children from the
town schools, which he does not now
have because he must do the same
work in shorter time and with less
time devoted to- his daily recita-
tions; the privilege to make and adopt
the course of study; the privilege to
license teachers found to be capable
and worthy but without state or
county certificate as well as to reject
teachers having legal certificates II
found incapable and unworthy Of their
papers.
As to the so-called objections, let
us reason moment. We hear 1t
said, would it not destroy local pride
in our present schools? Are we proud
that our district is bounded exactly
as it isY That it requires the time,
patience and too often the good will
of three of our neighborsY On are
we pI oud of the results Of our SCHOOL,
| If conditions are made so that better
results will come to our boys and
girls will not our pride necessarily
to increasedY
Extra expense: Mount Tabor is
trying to consolidate with Portland
because the city school tax is only 21a
mills and the suburban districts can
not maintain their schC OILS on this
levy. Last year the per capita cost
of education in our town school was
5l2.07 and that for the other five dis
tricts mentioned above was Sl3 80.
Where consolidation and transpor-
tation has been tried in Illinois it re-
duced the per capita about one half.
Unfair to the districts having no in
debtedness: Crapper would assume
Sl6 per cent and Barrett 10 per cent
of the S24, 600 Indebtedness and all the
expenses of the new district while
Hood River would pay 81 and one
third per cent of all the Indebtedness
and C, st of maintenance. Crapper
needs new building and Barrett
needs two-room building in the east
end of the district. A new building
has been voted and will be built but
il would be the wsest economy to
consolidate and then build. 1t has
been estimated that this whole con-
solidation plan would cost about 10
mills the first year Are our boys
and girls worth it? The cost will
naturally be less in future years as the
number of school children and prop
erty valuation increases. The number
and class of home seekers that will
come to us as result of this plan Is
an important factor to be considered.
Why should Oregon be behind other
states in the work of rural educationy
, lDe NeW - TN OCHUul JouInh sdysi
"Ihe consolidation of country schools
and the transportation of children is
now going on in Connecticut, Iowa,
Kansas, Nebraska, New Hampshire,
Maine, Massachusetts,, Wisconsin,
Vermont, South Dakota, Rhode Is.
and, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Da-
kota, New York, New Jersey and Cal
ifornia. These states represent more
than one half of the population Of the
United States.
Let every taxpayer consider every
phase of this question before he says
| am for or against the plan.