The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1912-07-30
PRIVATE GIVING
 THROUGH PUBLIC SCHOOLS
142 Superintendents Tell of Needs Now et--Opportunities For Givers, Large and SmalI-Pri- vate Support to Get Adequate
 Budgets.
(By ELSA DENIsoN.)
Bureau of Municipal Research, N. Y
Exclusive Service The Survey Press
 Bureau.)

l Exclusive Service The Survey Press l Bureau.)
 l When anyone speaks of MT. Rocke- | feller's gifts towards education, most people think of his donations to col l leges and universities. Yet MT. Rockefeller is benefitting thousands l of school children through the | s'HoolxWorm Commission Besides receiving treatments and medicines ] all children are taught through the schools how to help in the sanitary l crusade. The only way for philan- 1 thropist to fight the hook-worm was l through health boards and public l schools.
 l Private giving which does not en- l list schools cannot reach all the chil- l dren. Benefits that public-spirited people would like to give to children 1 are postponed because though school 1 superintendents see that definite | things are wanted in their own l schools, they know that taxes are
 now so high that added millage will make burden hard to be borne.' | Are schools to remain unprogres- sive and inadequate for lack of i'm provements, successfully tried in oth- CT cities, on the ground that there is
 danger of lessening the taxpayers re-
 sponsibility if private gifts are re-
 ceived by schools?
 There are one or two communities where so much has been done for
 schools by rich state-hoIders, that townspeople will not supply even run ming expenses. This reflects on the l af erixy and not on the desirability of out. side interest in schools. Few super l intendents have suggested that there are infinite numbers of ways in which outside giving can convince the citi- zens that certain changes and addi- tions to the school system must have
 public support.
 One will-maker saw that the op- portunity of beneftting all children under 16 years of agep lies in the public schools She asked the Bu-
 reau of Municipal Research how $10,-
 900 or $2O,O00 year could be be- queathed to do the most good in her city, or to benefit the schools of the country. The bureau put these ques- tions to the men and women who know the answ wers-the superinten- dents of city school systems.
 From 142 cities the replies told of school needs to meet which would require lump sums of over $3,000,i- GOO and yearly maintenance equal to the income on $7,500, GOO. This tre- mendous sum is built up from many small needs-$5, 900 for playgrounds,
 s250 for playground apparatus, $10o. for musical entertainments, $1,0OO a. year for work in vocational guidance for boys and girls, $1,0O0 year for special care of sub-normal children,
 $5O, ,000 to build and equip ten kim
 dergartens, $500 year for relief or scholarships for needy pupils, money for open air schools, gymnasiums, etc.
 Superintendents in cities of all sizes have listed the most vital needs of their schools, most 0f them so fllnda-
 mental that taxpayers must-so the superintendents say--eventually sup port them. Superintendents believe that no private giving, either large bequests or small donations, should be spent on traditional maintenance, but they do feel that only through private outside interest will they be able to demonstrate effectively to the taxpayers the need for improved school conditions, new equipment, new buildings, progressive methods, etc.
 Critics urge against this proposition that taxpayers meet the needs of the schools just so far as they under stand them. Let superintendents awaken their communities and have the needs met by taxation" The suggestion is sound, but it takes sometimes whole generation to con- vince taxpayers that increases in the school budget are desirable. The time required for. convincing has been greatly lessened when outside private interests and money have been avail able. to support actual demonstrations of what the schools would do with $5,0O0 for domestic science or $25O for playground apparatus.
 Tn, scores of communities manual training, kindergartens, the special care of backward children, play grounds, physical training, etc, are due to the interest and money of volunteer outside agencies and indi- viduals, Every city can tell of school improvements due in part or entirely to outside interest-which means.
 money The Bureau of Municipal Re- search has estimated that in New York city $1,00O,000 year is spent by some 200 outside agencies in SUD- puementing the work of the schools.
 Superintendents see how by. giving through schools donors could help all children, while by giving through outside private agencies they help only a small percentage. The school men more readily than others, can tell where the need for relief is not being met by organized charity or private giving; where scholarships in grammar and high schools would en- able children worth educating to fin-. ish their courses Small gifts of from $5 to $200 for photographs, prizes, pictures, library books, musi- cal entertainments, are needed in practically all schools and cannot ev- erywhere be expected through taxes.
 Tn several cities superintendents show that not money, but services are needed from physicians, dentists and health specialists. Their services will convince the community that all school children should be made phys ically fit and make it easier to ap- propriate money for inspectors or nurses. Of the thirty different wants by supplying which, as superinten- dents suggested private giving would help schools, all but four-scholar-