The Washington bee., 1911-08-12

damentalS distinctly unaltered.
For the smooth working OF this
the cooperation of the
Board of Commissioners and the I
Board of Education is requisite. A
percentage of the total
expenses for the fiscal year
being determined for the public !
the formulation OF the est1-
mates in accord with that proportion |
should, under the letter and spirit OF |
the law and the principles OF common !
sense, be left to the Board of Educa- !
ton and its professional corps
4 reading of the excerpts from the |
school law should. then, make clear
to the Commissioners what has al |
ways been clear to the Board OF Ed |
ucatiOn:
% That following the best Amerl- !
can practices and deeply impressed
with the slovenly inefficiency of the
management of our local schools un-
der the Commissioners, Congress has
made the present Board of Education
independent of the municipal govern
ment by vesting the control OF the
public schools" not in the Board OF
Commissioners but in the Board OF
Education, which represents the inter
ests of the permanent community.
(2) That Congress has specifically
empowered the Board of Education
to direct expenditures, leaving (a)
the disbursing of the actual money
and (b) the auditing of accounts 'un-
der the direction and control OF the
Commissioners.
~ l, INF,
law, so far as the annual estimates OF
the Board of Education are concern
ed, that said Commissioners shall
transmit the same in their annual es-
innate of appropriations for the Dis
trict of Columbia, with such recon-
mendations as they may deem proper
The law is so clear and explicit
that the Board of Education may well
be pardoned for assuming that the
Commissioners would eventually
gather its essential meaning. To
transmit" the estimates of the Board
Of Education with recommendations
is one thing. To tamper with those
estimates so as to dishgure them, to
destroy their symmetry and proper
ton, to convert the principles OF
equity to ali classes in the commune
lty-Tich and poor, white and black
upon which our estimates are always
based, into a sham and mOCkeTy, to
substitute your estimates for Ours-to
| do this is quite a different, IS quite an
ILLEGAL thing. The board of Commis-
sioners, then, have themselves been
guilty of that discrimination which
next to dishonesty, IS the Creates
evil that can creep into municipal ad
lministration.
( When the Congressional Commit
tee literally threw out of court youl
Iill-proportioned estimates because o.
their glaring injustices to the cOloreC
community, when Congress passed the
appropriation bill for 1912 with "a pc
I cent of the aggregate Appropriation
lunder the caption OF Buildings anC
!, | grounds assigned to the coloreC
schools, instead of the ii or IS pc
cent actually proposed by the Com
tmissioners, Congress administered
, well-merited rebuke to the dangerou
/, habit which seems to have taken roo
+ lin our municipal governmental
, habit of substituting arbitrary inter
, iference for the orderly processes o
icivil procedure.
Il | hope it may be helpful to tn
Commissioners for me to enqulT
= whether it is not notorious thai
? lwhereas. about One-third OF the off
Icers, teachers and other employees G
1.-THE Board of Education are seleCte
p from the cOIored community, III tn
r lswarm of persons occupying clerIcs
IpOsitions or posts of greater respOr
-lsibilitv under the control OF the Com
r lmissioners, not half dozen are pei
lsons of color? Next to dishonesty
: | the Board of Education would hav
1Iyou inscribe upon the facade OF tn
). municipal building in letters OF golC
d lest you forget, discrimination Is tn
D greatest evil that can creep into mt
= inicipal administration.
The Board of Education seeks just
m fication for its vigorous policies IN tn
: far-reaching improvement in the ply:
i ical equipment and repair of OF
= schools, in the more wholesome disc
;. pline and finer professional spIT
e which pervade the whole corps {
teachers and supervisors, in the large
c and richer service of our schools
s the bodies and minds and hearts {
|. our thousands of pupils, rich and poo
d white and black The Board finds i
e Iauthority for its acts and policies
+ la conservative Interpretation of ii
Iletter and spirit of the organic schot
: law which for the public good inves
e it and not the Commissioners wit
e the control of the public schools {
= the District of Columbia, a Ia
i which, in the judgment of eminent al
c thority, endows the Board of Educ
If ton with ampler powers than IT h;
" yet exercised.
N When the present Board OF Educ
If ton took charge of the public schoo
in 1905, the schools were IN need
l. many reforms. Today no citizen nee
T. be ashamed of the schools of Was
le ington: they take rank with the be
n in the country. But, instead of hel
I ing the Board of Education in its cor
4 prehensive program of reform. Il
RS Commissioners have hampered It
al petty meddling, and by a criticism
$ acidulous as it IS assiduous, as bas
n less as it is petty, and as ineft =
m for any public good as it is IL
lWit ~ encA -
IS, bers of the Boaru o. na
a devoted themselves, at no sma.. sacl
of fee of time and money and effort,