The Marietta journal. [volume] (Marietta, Ga.) 1866-1909, 1908-08-20
RETIREMENT OF COUNTRY
SCHOOLS,


school term is far too short and
our buildings inadequate and un.
comfortable. We realize that our
teachers are too poorly paid, and
that the equipment Of our schools
is practically nothing compared
with the demands of growing CIV
ilization. But what have we done
to remedy these conditions? Some
remedy must be applied. We must
begin to make our schools worth
while; we must make them meet
the demands of growing civiliza-
ton and everyday life; we must
make them centres of interest and
places of enchantment to the chill
dren. To do these things we must
have better teaching, larger sala-
RES for teachers, longer terms,
better houses, and more complete
equipment. To get larger salaries,
longer terms, etc., I'VE must have
more money. To get more money,
we must have
LOCAL TAXATION,
A local tax for the support of
country schools is a tax provided
for in an amendment to the State
Constitution which allows the cit
liens of any county in Georgia to
levy upon themselves a local tax,
not to exceed five mills, to supple
ment the public school fund re-
ceived from the State. The law
provides for two plans of local
taxation-one by district and one
by county as whole. The district
plan is more or less unpopular.
There is too much machinery about
it, and there is sometimes trouble
in collecting the taxes. It requires
of the trustees a great deal of work
for no pay, and is liable to be
changed every year because of it's
instability. The county plan is
working beautifully wherever it
has been tried. Of the counties in
this State that have adopted local
taxation on the county plan, not
one has been heard to complain.
Everybody is pleased, and good,
smooth work is being done. The
county plan can be operated more
cheaply than the district plan, and
the rate of taxation all over the
county will be uniform. When a
county as q whole adopts local
taxation, it does away with tuition
fees in any form, and makes every
school in the county a free school.
It provides funds tor increasing
the salaries of teachers, for erect
ing new buildings AID purchasing
equipment, and for running all the
schools in the county eight or nine
months, as circumstances may de-
mand. 1t makes no change in the
election of,teachers. Each school
retains it's local board of trustees
and elects it's own teacher, as has
been the case in the past. 1t in no
way obligates the people to consol-
idate schools, but provides funds
for that purpose in case the people
of several communities wish to
consolidate Consolidation is be-
ing carried on successfully in some
places where there is no local tax.
Local taxation,does not mean con-
solidation. In another letter I
want to tell of some of the advau-
tages of consolidation, but I want
every voter to understand that a
vote for local taxation is not a
vote for consolidation.
The sentiment in favor of local
taxation is growing rapidly. 1t is
sweeping over the State and the
South like a mighty wave. The
counties IN Georgia that have
adopted it are not a few. III the
course of a few years, hardly a
county in the State will be with
out it. I say this because know
its merits and the universal salts
faction it is giving. More than
three-fou1ths of the money used
for schools in the United States is
raised by local taxation. It is no
experiment the counties that have
tried it, want no other plan. Han
cock county was the first in Geor.
gia to adopt local taxation. In
that county it met with strong op-
position and was carried with diff.
ficulty. If the question was SUBJ
mitted to Hancock's voters again
to-day after three years trial, the
ones who oppose it would be so
few and far between, that they
would be afraid to toot their horn.
Mr.. Duggan, superintendent of
schools in Hancock county, in his
report shows that under local tax
alton, the enrolment in the
schools of the county has increased
ten per cent, while the average
daily attendance for the entire
eight months, under local taxa
ton, is one per cent. greater than