The Birmingham age-herald., 1913-07-27
Resolutions Adopted Look
ing to Advancement Of
Public Schools
SEVEN MONTHS TERM
IN EVERY SCHOOL
Twelve State Superintendent of Edu-
cation of Southern States Adopt
Resolutions at Conference
in Richmond

Montgomery, July 26.-(Special.) )-Super-
intendent of Education Henry J. willing
ham this afternoon gave out a brief in
teryiew on certain resolutions proposed
by unanimous agreement of - state SUI
perintendents of education of southern
states and adopted by the conference Of
education in Richmond relative to the
best methods of advancing the interests
of the public schools of the south The
resolution favors state appropriation, To-
cal taxation and rural district school tax
The resolutions. together with Superin-
tendent Willinghams interview, are as
follows
Resolved. l. That the best interests
of the schools require that funds should
be appropriated by the state and should
not be subject to the changing or fluctu-
ating policies of different legislatures,
but should be fixed by constitutional
rather than statutory provision, and
should be based upon either a mileage
valuation or some specific proportion of
the total state income from taxes.
County Tax for Schools
% That we favor a constitutional state
and county tax for public schools, suf-
fieient to provide not less than seven
months term in every public school, the
state tax to be apportioned from the
state treasury to the various counties,
and the county tax to remain in the
county where it is collected.
80 That we favor a voluntary urban
and rural district school tax, supple
mentary to the state and county tax, for
the hpnpfit Of n Of 10 :, .tri -
in which it is voted.''
The above resolutions were pa ssed unan-
imously by the conference for education
in the south recently assembled in Rich
mond, Va. These resolutions were pro.
posed by unanimous agreement of the II
state superintendents of all the south
ern states represented and participating
in the conference.
In the older easteyn states the basis
of securing school revenues is that of
depending almost exclusively on the COM
munities ana school districts, each to fur
nish it's own revenue; but in the middle
and western states and throughout the
southern states, where such large per-
centage of the people are engaged in
agriculture and the population is widely
scattered as compared to the older east
ern states, it is recognized as right and
| fair that the rich centers and the cor
porate wealth should contribute equit-
able amount as a state tax to form the
| basis of q school fund for all the peo-
| pie.
Rich Should Share Tax
ION the same theory the richer COM
munities in given county and the cor
porate wealth touching usually but few
localities in any county should make a
fair contribution to the school fund of all
the children in the county.
after the state has furnished enough
revenue to run all the public schools about
five months, and the counties enough more
to extend the terms to seven months. then
the districts or municipalities should be
expected to extend their own schools as
much longer as they want them
"The resolutions above quoted from the
Virginia conference agree fully with the
overwhelming public sentiment as ex-
pressed in Alabama through the educa-
tional workers and nearly all the news