The daily sentinel., 1912-10-22
Denies Such Effect.

plop'ItS lutl IL NOW Nllnln tuOSc
districts and subject TO school taxa
'tlon.
Denies Sncll Effect.
| wish to say positively and en-
phatically that this bill does nothing
of the kind. Any such construction
placed upon il is due to curious
misapprehenSion or misunderstood
ing OF the very fundamental prln-
ciplcs of school government in this
state, and of the proposed amend
ment itself AS matter of fact. |
say without fear of successful CON
tradiction that If the so-called School
and Social Center Amendment is
passed by the people of this state
at the November election, 1t does
not in the slightest degree affect
the schools or the school boards of
these school districts in which these
cities are included. and II never can
affect them unless the people OF
these cities themselves. at some fu-
ture time, should by their own initia-
tive and their own demand. permit
II TO be done. Those who have raised
this objection seem TO have forgot
ten this Fundamental fact that by the
statutes of the state tsee General
Statutes, Sec. 5913) school districts
are declared 20 be bodies corporate"
AS TO their powers. they are by this
statute the same as municipal cor
poratiOns in this state"
That is 10 say. they are just as
distinct In their government as a
city or county. Therefore, there Is
nothing in the charter of the cities
in question concerning school gov
ernment, and there cannot be in
such charters. whether under com
mission government or otherwise, I'M
I'll these cities are declared by law
to be school district and the prop
erty of the school district transferred
to them, as has been done and is
again done by this proposed bill as
to the city and county of Denver
The provision that has caused the
scare is as follows:
IF no charter provision exists
therefor, where commission
form of government is in force.
then the commissioners shall
have and exercise, or appoint
some person or persons to have
and exercise, all of said duties
and powers until a charter pro-
vision is made (by the people
themselves. for that purpose"
IL could only possibly apply to
Denver, since Denver is the only city
in Colorado that is declared by law,
and again declared by this bill it.
self, to be of itself school district
and that owns its school property.
Now, 1t is perfectly clear that since
commission government has so far
failed in Denver, if the bill passes,
even the present school board here in
Denver continues just as at present
to run the schools until Denver shall
amend its charter or adopt commits
sion government and in that charter
decide how they want to run the
schools and what they want to do
with them.
Now, how does this affect the
people of Colorado Springs, Pueblo
and Grand Junction, or any other
city, operating under commission
government
Has No Effect.
II does not affect them at all. un-
less they first go into the legislature,
or take such legal steps as are neces-
sary to have themselves declared to
be a school district and the school
property thus conveyed to it, as has
been done with reference TO Denver
and as is again done by this bill.
After that is done, being like Denver
single school district, they could
have the same rights that Denver has.
II, after taking such steps, and
having their own schools instead of
being part OF a district. that is,
the schools that they patronize as
at present, and 4 commission form
of government should be in force in