Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1909-10-08
MONEY FOR SCHOOLS
District Should Have Direct
Federal Support.
PUBLIC LANDS DONATED
The States Have Benefited, But Not
Washington.
NOT A SINGLE ACRE GIVEN
A Citizen Proposes a Concerted Eff
fort to Secure This Bounty for
the National Capital.

I see that while the school boards es-
innate for the schools amount to "a, 'OO-
coo. the Commissioners propose to reduce
it to $3,OOOOOO. 1t is not my purpose TO
say who is right or wrong in this matter
Indeed it may well be argued that both
sides are right. for We know that the
schools need the full amount. and on the
other hand it seems impossible that one
third Of the total revenue can be used for
the schools without depriving other and
vital interests of their means of support
l wish to cal! attention to means by
which the schools may be provided with
| the necessary funds, in part at least,
without injury to other interests. 1t is
simply to secure for the District public
school fund similar to that given to the
states, and which / believe can be done
by proper effort
AS is we'll known complaint has fire.
quently been made in Congress, in maya
zines and the press about our schools,
the last being about the buildings, IN a
widely circulated, magazine.
AS one writer has we'll said, the schools
of the National Capital ought to be the
best in the land, and thus serve as an eX-
ample for schools in the states.
Persons who make these complaints
know little nothing of the conditions
under which our schools have been built
up and of their means of support. and
hence never refer to this branch of the
subject. AS all know the government
as early as 1871 adopted the policy of
aiding education in the states and terri
tories, which policy has not only been
continued but largely increased of late
years.
One would naturally suppose that under
this policy the National Capital in which
the United States owns much more than
half of all the property, on which it pays
no tax and where the children of the 3d.
OU0 government employees, together with
those of members and senator's, attend
the public schools, besides more than
thousand from Maryland and Virginia,
would have been specially provided for
but such is not the fact
What Congress Did for the States.
Under the law of 1877, and subsequent
acts, according to the report of the public
lands commission in 1905, there had been
given to the states and territories as fol-
lows:
For common schools, 69O5s.443 acres;
for state universities, to 1900, 1865 800
acres; for agricultural colleges, 9.6OO.00O
acres: of swamp lands. used in part for
education, IS 49,, Oo9 acres; salt springs
and adjoining tracts, used in part for edu-
cation. 6O6.04o acres. a total of Ia. 1903 467,
besides special grants amounting to over
$1,000 acres additional, and the annual
1860. and which has since been increased
to $4,000 per annum.
In addition to this. in 1886 Congress dis
| tributed among the states from the United
and seventeen of the states devoted their
| share, in whole or in part. to education.
and it is remarkable fact that, although
the act included the District, 1t never
received cent of It.!
Oklahoma. admitted in 1905. was given
for its university 25O060 acres; for a
preparatory school, 10000; for agricul-
tural college, 100000; for agricultural col
lege for colored students, 100000 and for
normal schools, 100000: in all, 1850. 600
acres, in addition to the sixteenth and
thirty-sixth sections, the total being esti-
mated at 100000 acres; besides which 1t
! is given $5.0O0,O0o in cash.
Texas. when admitted, reserved it's pub
| lie lands, of which it had a vast amount.
1t also claimed 101 800 square miles in
what are now the states of Colorado,
Kansas, Wyoming and New Mexico. for
the surrender OF which the United States
| enormous amount left. out of which the
state has appropriated for common
schools many millions Of acres, and for
her state university 2,2S9,6S2 acres. Her
1902 amounted to 22,Os0,225 acres. A
large portion OF these lands is leased for
grazing cattle, Of which in 1902 there
were over 100000, the rental for that
year dulOulliIl6 W StolbUOi
Gov. Johnson of Minnesota, in a recent
publication. said the school fund of that
state is now $19,00O,OO0, and that when all
it's school land is sold it will amount
to $10O,OOO,0CO, the state having provided
by law that none shall be sold for less
than SIS per acre.
This aid to education In the states Is one
of the most beneficial and grandest
things ever done by any nation.
George Washington's Advice.
Governmental aid for education was
urged by Washington, Jefferson, John
Adams, Madison and John Quincy Adams
in their messages. Washington, in his
private correspondence. urged it strongly,
and in his farewell address said:
Promote. then. as an object Of pri-
mary Importance, institutions for the Diff
fusion of knowledge. In proportion as
the structure of government gives force
to public opinion. 1t Is essential that
public opinion should be enlightened"
One would naturally suppose that a
government which had done so much to
aid education in the states would take
special pains to provide for it in the Ma
tional Capitalize only capital that was
ever deliberately established such by
the government for it's own use-but, alas,
tie records tell very different story.
In the History of Federal and State
Aid to Higher Education published by
the bureau of education in 1890. find the
statement 1nat In 1855 congress apprO-
priated lands in the city, supposed to be
worth $4,000, to the Georgetown College,
and that In 1896 it gave a like amount to
the Columbian College. and tnat is all it
has ever done for higher education in
the District, except that it makes an an
nual appropriation in aid of the Howard
University for the colored.
Nothing for the District.
For the common schools it has never
given an acre of land nor dollar of
money. except that it added a few thou
sand dollars to the lottery fund with
which We built our first high school build
ing and little in a few other cases.
Prior to 1873 it never contributed cent
for the erection of a school building
the support of a school-and that, too,
Notwithstanding the fact that the 3O,O00
government employees and many of the
representatives and senator's send their
children to the schools
A few years ago a bill was introduced
by Senator Dolliver to place the scsLu.s
education. and in commenting on this in
more important that the District should
Harvard should, for while Harvard had
but 5000 to educate the District had
GO eco.
During the past twenty-four years the
amount appropriated by Congress was
S. 528 aS3 less than the estimates of the
school board. and that Notwithstanding
civ aSio SpeciaI