The Washington herald., 1912-01-21
WASHINGTON SCHOOLS
SHOULD NOT BE CHEAP

Il is not to be expected that the in
vestieation which Supt Davidson IS
making into the comparative cost of
public education in Washington and
twenty-five other cities will show any
thing cheap in favor of the Capital. II
is a fact well understood by those
who have given the subject attention
that public education here costs more
than it does in some other cities. Those
astute economists in the House OF
Representatives did not even make a
discovery when they unearthed that
fact, but that does not justify the as
sault upon the Washington schools in
which they have INDUCED.
Education costs more in Washing
ton than in some other American cities
for good and sufficient reasons-reasons
which should appeal even TO the em-
bryonic intellects of statesmen from
Texas, Kentucky, and other Common
wealths of noble name Washington is
not like the cities with which it is
compared. conditions are not the same
objects of curriculum are not the same,
results are not the same. If Baltimore,
Buffalo. Milwaukee, Louisville, and
Galveston faced the same conditions
that are presented here, their schools
would cost as much or more, for in
the political cities appropriated dollars
have never yet gone so far in the way
of practical results as they have in this
Capital of the nation. Statesmen in
the House may rant as they please
about economy, but they cannot change
the facts of the distribution of popull-
tion. lack of congested- districts, pa
rochial and other schools, and the idea
which has been fostered here of max
ing the schools of Washington patterns
for the educational example of the
whole country.
Extravaganza has been charged on
the floor of the House against our
school system, and all the time it is
based upon comparison of cities as
unlike in all principal characteristics as
day and night For example, Balti-
more, which was used as one illus
tration, has a much more compact
population than Washington. 1t has
congested districts in which many hun
dreds of school children are crowded
into narrow spaces. Its streets are mar
row. its houses small, conditions no
where to be found here We have no
congested districts. On the contrary,
for the last ten years a remarkable
scattering OF the population has been
going on here to the suburbs, making
necessary the erection of many new and
costly buildings that would not have
been required if the population had
been stable.
The Western High School has been
built over three times to accommodate
the crowding of pupils toward the
northwest In like manner appropria-
tions have not kept up with the call for
school room at Petworth, Brightwood,
Takoma, and Chevy Chase. So great
has been the movement of people to
the suburbs that some of the older
buildings in the heart of the city have
room TO spare, and statesmen have the
efrontery to argue in the House that
all appropriations for new buildings
should be cut out because some of the
buildings have unoccupied room.
Washington has few parochiaI schools
and few private schools which take
children out of the public schools, while
in some other cities, notably in Mil
waukee, this class of institutions pro-
vide about half of the instruction given
to the rising generation.
Economy in the conduct OF education
in Washington is one thing, and quite
another thing in some other city. There
is no basis of comparison-a fact per-
festly understood by everybody except
the purveyors of economy in the House
of Representatives. About all that II
amounts to is to screw down the ex-
'cellent public school system of Wash
ington to the same level of cheapness
that prevails in some political, boss
ridden city of the States.
China Asks Renocnifion