The Washington bee., 1911-08-12

know that the Armstrong school, the
NJ Street High School and the man
ual training center for the Twelfth
Division-the first item you reduced
by one-third and the others you cut
out entirely-are for cOlored pupils?
That our board acted upon an errO-'
neous impression is a matter of sin
cere regret. The Commissioners
might wisely become better acqualnt-
ed with their buildings.
The Board of Education estimated
under the caption of buildings and
grounds for the fiscal year ending
June 80, 1912, $751;, ,683 in the case OF
the white schools. and $2o2, 10y in the
case of the colored. These figures in
clude division OF the item OF $4,000
for refitting Franklin School, and the
item of $37.5oo for repairs and I'M
provements" in the ratio of to I for
white and cOlored schools. That IS TO
say, our Board sought as always to
assign the colOred community practi-
cally one-third of the aggregate es-
Inmates since the enrolment of the
colored schools is about one-third
that of the whole system.
You state
1T must have been we'll known to
| the Board that the Commissioners
| would be obliged to cut the estl-
mates which it submitted, and that in
order to have the benefit of the wis
dom of the Board it would cut off
| items for school buildings and
grounds from the bottom OF the list
of items which it furnished
As a matter of fact, the Commis-
sioners did not simply and innoCently
cut off items from the bottom of the
| list" upward. One of the items for
specific buildings number II (white)
they retained, but number II (COlOr-
ed they cut out. Numbers 10, Q, and
8 they retained, but number 7 they
cut out Number 6, 5, 4 and 3 the
Commissioners reduced. The vino
Ibloweth where it listeth" and the
Commissioners blue pencil skipped
InOw here, now there in our estimates
Iadding an entirely new item in one
Iplace, reducing four or five items IL
other places, and cutting out in hit
'or-miss fashion altogether 81 per cen
of the Board of Education's total esti
mate for colored schools.
But the Board of Education did no
iarrange its items haphazard Th'
first six items on the list were eithe
lf5r the completion of buildings or TO
their equipment. The seventh item
Twas for rehtting store rooms, offices
land Board rooms at Franklin School
| The eighth and ninth items (white
iwere for new projects, the tenth an
Eleventh (colored) for new projects
so were the twelfth (white), the thir
teenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth (al
lcolored), the sixteenth (white)) an
the seventeenth (Colored) This ar
, rangement-it merely undertook frs
of all the complete projects alread
Ibegun-was obviously businesslik
. and equitable But, the Commission
, lers' blue pencil did not stop to en-
{ lquire.
The Commissioners undertook to d
1.-TWO things to our estimates: Ih
first was unwise, the second illegal.
The unwisdOm consisted in the a
tempt to substitute for the estimate
of the Board of Education estimate
Iof your own You cut three items fC
lwhite schools, one per cent of tn
Total for these schools, You cut tW
Iitems for the cOlored schools, FIVE pc
Icent of the total You cut down oil
lestinates for white schools by elm
mating entirely two items amountin
Ito IS per cent of our estimates tC
Ithose schools You cut down our e
Inmates for cOlored schools by elm
mating entirely five items amountir
to more than half of our estimate f
Icolored schools,
Had YOU extended the Board of E,
Iucation opportunity to readJust OF
Town well-propOrtioned estimate
bringing them within such compa
as to bear a more modest relation
1.-THE aggregate municipal estimate
Iour Board would gladly have save
Ivou the embarrassment of your le;
in the dark. So much for your II
wisdom.
/ But, your procedure was more tn;
10 unwise: it was illegal. Lest your a
2. quaintance with the organic scho
l. law be not more perfect than your
Iuuaintance with the school building
le let me quote from section ,, OF Il
rs law:
ID THAT the control of the publ
% schools of the District of Columbia
D. hereby vested in a board OF educat1o
1t The members of the boa
ut of education shall be appointed by t
le Supreme Court Judges of the Distrl
TaIOf COlumbit"
a ''The board shall determine all que
ne tions of general policy relating to {
I'd schools, shall appoint the eXeCutr
be officers, hereinafter provided for, q
of fine their duties, and direct expen'
,l- lures All expenditures of pub
gs funds for such school purchases sh
rs be made and accounted for as nc
at provided by law under the directi
n and control of the Commissioners
the District of Columbia"
f. "The Board of Education shall a
is nually, on the first day of Octob
OF transmit to the Commissioners of t
of District of Columbia an estimate
ed detail of the amount of money requ
an ed for the public schools for the {
or suing year, and said Commissions
O. shall transmit the same in their annI
ial estimate of appropriations for the D
o8 trict of Columbia, with such reco
a? mendations as they mad de-
re proper"
lit The last paragraph has, perha
n been modified by additional legls
ii to-, cor+,;ned in Sections : and 8