The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1907-05-05
School House Plan Meeting
With Encouragement
MANY SCHOOLS TO BE BUILT
Limestone's Decision to Issue Bonds
For Good Roads is Also Sign
of Awakening in the
State.
BY WALTER HARPER.

Alabama is showing "A marked activity
In the way of internal improvement just
now that should be the source of much
inspiration to those who iave the states
prosperity at heart.
Not only is this activity noted in the
great Industrial centres of the state like
Birmingham, but 1t is seen In every sec
ton, extending into the remotest rural
districts, where the people are interested
In building new and better school houses
and better public roads,
A great deal of this activity is the re-
suit of recent legislation which in the be-
ginning was inspired by desire on the
part of the people for Improvement
The state in the past has been some
what backward in the matter of public
education, but the impetus given by the
recent session of the legislature promises
a new era for the commonwealth in this
respect Perhaps the most important
and far-reaehing work that has been
done IS the incentive that has been given
the rural districts to erect new and bet
ter school districts. The readiness with
which the opportunity thus afforded is
being accepted by the people of the state
who are affected IS very gratifying and
promises much for the future.
The help that is extended by the state
Is SMALL it is true, but it is a good be-
ginning and a nucleus upon which great
and most effective educational system
may he bull. The plan adopted by the
state is one that calls forth the efforts,
enlists the personal interest and taxes
the community pride of every rural COM
munity in need of better school facili-
ties.
The state offers to each district the
amount of 5000 for the purpose of erecting
a new building with the provision that
the people of the community supplement
the sum with an equal or larger amount.
Only five districts in each county can
avail themselves of this aid per year,
as only $1,000 is appropriated to each coun-
ty annually, but in the course of only
few years every district in the state may
provide itself with ample school house
facilities.
The great number of rural school dis
tricts in the state that have FASTENED to
avail themselves of the fund Is proof of
the appreciation On the part of the people
and the timely wisdom of the legsla-
tors.
The people of Alabama were ready for
such a movement and the Legislature has
evidently acted at the psychological mo-
ment A new educational spirit devel-
oped in the state little more than
a year ago, asserting itself in record
breaking school attendance Reports from
every section of Alabama during the past
year show a remarkable eagerness on
the part of the people for Increased
school facilities. This Is not only so In
the colleges, the higher schools and city
public schools, but in the rural schools
as we'll Hundreds of applicants have
been turned away for lack of ROOM This
complaint has been so general that the
legislators were forced to enact measures
of relief and it is greatly to their credit
that they not only provided for the larger
institutions of the state, but in a measure
offered substantial assistance to the COM
mon school, where the real basis of the
states educational structure Is laid
Many of the rural districts have not
only raised the 5000 supplementary fund
required by law to secure the states
some instances several hundred dollars.
In some counties all the $1,000 allowed for
the year has already been taken up and
new school buildings will be ready for
the next scholastic term.
While 1t Is said that the public school
aid for Alabama with all that has been
done through the recent legislation Is
still much behind that enjoyed in many
other states of the union, 1t is felt by the