The watchman and southron. [volume] (Sumter, S.C.) 1881-1930, 1912-08-10
NEEDED - \ BETTER SCHOOL
SYSTEM-NUMBER 5.
iiy Prof. W. III. Hand. State High
School Inspector.

Taking the schools of the state as
d whole, no wcll-informed. clear
thinking man would for moment
question the need of more money for
them 1t would be difficult to con-
celVc of too much money for schools
of the right kind. But money is net
|ail that is necessary to making and
| Even before attempting to increase
The school revenue it would be the
part of wisdom to use what we ar
ready have to better purpose. The
people are willing to be taxed even
heavily for anything inherently good
| that proves Itself a good investment.
The tax payers have a right to de-
| nand al wise expenditure of the
school funds. The same people who
pay the taxes have the ultimate con-
troll of the expenditure of their taxes.
| The whole matter is their question
Now, before asking the tax payer for
more money for the school let us do
ut least two things: 1st. Use more
economy and common sense in the
| expenditure of what funds we have;
End Begin to construct a school sys-
tenn that meets present demands and
that will lend itself to the growing de-
mands Of the modern State. In short,
II our schools are to be efficient, they
must be organized; if the organization
is to be effective, it must be thorough
| ly articuiated throughout the State,
and from the elementary schools
through the university.
The unit Of school organization is
one of the most potent factors for
good or evil in any school system. The
efficiency if any system must stand
| the test of at least two standards: the
efficiency Of the individual schools
constituting the system, and the SIM
plicity and ease of administration Of
the aggregation of schools. Among
the State school systems are found
three distinct types Of units: the dis
| trict the township, and the county,
with the additional city units which
may occur inside any Of these three.
in this State We have a mixed type
The county is the unit of taxation
and of general supervision; the dis
trict is the unit of enrolment, Of the
distribution Of school taxes, and is
perhaps the real unit of adminstra-
ton. The functions and the relations
OF these units are too we'll understood
| by the masses of the peope to need
discussion here. We are here concern
South Carolina, the smallest OF the
Southern States has a land area of a
little more thap 10000 square miles.
In the State in 1911 were 1901 school
districts Of an average of sixteen
square mile seach. These districts
vary in size from less than three
square miles in Chesterfield county to
one hundred and forty-nine square
miles in Beaufort county, although
the State constitution forbids school
districts to contain less than nine
square miles or more than forty-nine
square miles. Greenville county leads
in the number Of districts-1O5, fol-
lowed closely by Horny and Spartan
burg each with 50. Beaufort county
has the smallest number-11. while
charleston comes next with Is, close
iy followed by Richland with 16. Here
are two distinct policies in operation.
The conditions in many of the coun-
ties. throughout the State show con-
clusively that little progress can be
hoped for until something better in
the way of a state system is evolved.
Many of the districts in these coun-
ties have so few pupils as to make it
impossible to have schools worthy Of
he name at anything like a reason
Abbeville county enrolled but pu-
pills, another had but pupils, and a
third had but pupils; one district
in Aiken had but 9 pupils, one district
in Bamberg had pupils; one in
, Barnwcll had a pupils; one in Cal
houn had pupils; one in Chester had
. pupils; one in Edgefeld had s; one
| in Fairfield had 4; one in Greenwood
had 2, another 8, and third 6 one
| had s; one in Marlboro had 3; one
in Newbcrry had Z; another 6, and
a third but 2; one in Oconee had 8,
! and another .; two liz OrangeDurg