Norwich bulletin. [volume] (Norwich, Conn.) 1895-2011, 1910-05-11

The last of the season. and perhaps
one of the most important. was the
! meeting of the Principals club at the
Broadway schoolhouse on Tuesday af-
ternoon, at which time the committee
which was named some time ago to
look into the ACCESSIBILITY of the town
paying the tuition of pupils at the Free
Academy made a report and it was
unanimously accepted. 1t urged that
steps be taken to bring the matter
before the boards of education, com
and the selectmen will be asked to put
it in the call for the annual town
meeting. The report of the committee
which included f. J. Werkin, C. H.
Hobson and ]. B. Stanton-follows:
A careful and thorough investigation
or the existent conditions relative to
the maintenance of a public high
school, or the payment of the tuition
fee at an academy, in case a public
high school is not provided, by the
cities throughout the United States
whose population numbers twenty
thousand and upwards has been made.
This investigation revealed some very
interesting facts-facts whose import
Is such that they demand the widest
publicity possible, in order that every
citizen Of the town of Norwich may
fully comprehend them.
Not a single city with a population
OF twenty thousand or more, through
out the length and breadth of our
country. in any one of the forty-six
states, Is without some public pro-
vision for a secondary education. In
q few cities of this size and in innun-
cradle smaller cities the tuition of all
pupils who attend an accepted private
academy, within or without their bor-
GERS, is paid by the public This is
true of many small towns, which, be-
cause of the small number of pupils to
attend, deem it unwise to establish
high school of their own. In towns and
cities where academies had been es-
tablished before the advent of the free
public high schools, the towns and cit
les as a rule have deemed it wise, ex-
pedient and economical to pay tuition
at the existing academy. This is par
ucularly true in the smaller towns and
cities where two institutions doing the
same line of work could not thrive. The
result is practically the same in any of
these methods of proviSiOn-every
child has a secondary education offered
him without the payment of any tut
ton personally.
Norwich Makes No Provision.
Norwich is, then, in class by her.
self, in that she makes absolutely no
public provision for a secondary edu-
cation There is an academy of good
standing in our city,an academy whose
endowment enables 1t to offer sec
ondary education to our children at a
very nominal figure, SIS per year In
many cases this slight tuition fee is
prollibitive, especially when the cost
of books, clothing, transportation and
the other essentials involved by at
tendance thereat are taken into con-
sideration. This fee, nominal though
it may be, ought not to fail upon the
individual for payment. The payments
of this fee, even though it were but
one dollar. is 8 public duty, and is so
regarded elsewhere. If the town of
Norwich can furnish her children with
a secondary education at the per cap
tia cost of SIS per year, she is very
fortunate, most towns and cities pay
three, four, five and even six times that
amount for such an education.
The one strong feature of the public
payment of this tuition, in addition to
that of justice and duty, would be the
change of attitude toward this eduoa-
ton, for then the Academy would be
considered an integral part of our
school system, and no child would be
regarded as having completed his edu-
cation until he had finished a course in
that institution. 1t is a fact that the
average parent thinks that he has Suf-
fciently educated his child when that
child has completed adj the schooling
that the public will furnish. AS con-
sequence, at the present time the com
pletlOn of grammar school course is
looked upon by many as sufficient. 1t
is clearly patent that a child is not
ready to go to work at the averafe age
of leaving grammar school; that he is
not sufficiently matured mentally, NOR
ally or physically. Furthermore
high school education profits pupils,
who acquire greater power to meet the
responsibilities and opportunities of
life; and likewise 1t profits a COM
n1unity, which receives as a product a
more intelligent citizenship. Money
spent in raising the status of citizen
ship is never wasted.
The payment of this tuition by the
town will cost money. 1t is evident
that the town is already laboring I'M
der q heavy financial load. Yet, this
is question of right, justice, and
duty; and right, justice and duty
should prevail, no matter what the
cost may be. 1t costs other cities
much more; they, too, are carrying
heavy financial burdens; still, they do
this, and have done it for years. Is
it not time that Norwich should fall
into line?
Necessary to Change the Law.
Under the present statute relative
to the payment of tuition by a town
which has no local high school. it is
debatable whether or not such pay
ment can be legally made by the town
of Norwich. Such payment should be
made; such payment should be legally
made: and therefore if necessary. the
law should be changed. The evident
intent of the law was to place the
opportunity of secondary education
within the grasp of pupils living in
small towns which could not provide
a high school of their own. BY the
Enactment of this law, these towns
were enabled to send these pupils to
the nearest high school, being rein-
1t is extremely doubtful that the franz
ers of this statute intended to prevent
this town from paying tuition at the
Norwich Free Academy There should
be nothing to prevent this, if the town
wishes to do it, without any desire to
be reimbursed by the state Should
the existence of an academy in a town
make any difference in the legality of
scuh payment of tuition by the town.
provided the town has no high school?
If SO, the presence of such insti-
tuition is a positive evil not a good
thing. AS the law is now interpreted,
the children of Montville, Jewett City
and surrounding towns are the favor
ed ones, as their towns can and do,
pay their tuition and transportation,
being reimbursed by the state to the
extent of two-t thirds of the tuition fee
and one half of the transportation ex-
pense. On the other hand the children
of our town. town having no high
school, are Disseminated against, in
that it is maintained that their town
cannot legally pay such tuition And
why is this so? Simply and solely is
it so because they happen to reside in
the same town in which is situated an
academy. The aaw makes it a Ques-
tiop Of 10 I0ca1itv of the school