Western Carolina Democrat and French Broad hustler. [volume] (Hendersonville, N.C.) 1913-1915, 1913-05-08
RAPID ADVANCE ALONG
EDUCATIONAL LINES

WUCAllVNA uND
\ The Legislature of North Caroline has
this year provided that hereafter the school
term shall be not less than six months in all
the public schools of the State.
In Henderson county the average term Is
already six months. Under the new 1egis-
lation, the minimum in this county will be
six months and the average will be consid-
erably more.
The school tax, as provided by State law,
is Is cents On 800 worth of real and person
al property and $3.50 on each taxable poll.
The taxable valuation of the county last
year was $5,119,858; and there were 2,319
taxable polls. The school tax from these
sources was $16,278.15. From this total
must be deducted expenses of collection, ex-
penses of administration, and money set
aside for building fund. Each of these
amounts was approximately $500. After
they ha dbeen deducted, the available coun-
ty school fund had dwindled to about $12,-
600 which would not give anything like an
average term of six months. The remand
er of the money needed ere derived to some
extent from State funds and to a much
greater extent from special revenues raised
by what are known as ''local tax Districts"
which are districts where the people, by
vote, voluntarily levy a sepcial tax on
themselves for school purposes. More than
half the county is voluntarily levying such
special taxes,-a fact which very clearly in
dicates the determination of our people to
advance the cause of education.
There are s'xty school districts IN this
county,5ffty-fve white and nine colored.
The length of term varies from four to
eight months. The larger districts, are
generally "local tax districts and thus
have longer terms. Three schools have
eight-month terms; six or seven have even
months terms; and these nine or ten schools
have more than onethird of the enrolment
of the county. Theaverage school term in
this county is six months.
h school census of the county is 1881.
The enrolment is about 73 per cent. of the
census. When we bear in mind that there
are several private schools and church
schools In the county, and, further, that the
school census includes all children from six
to t~Wenty-one years of age, and that some
of these are considered by their parents as
too young to attend school, while many
others are old enough to nave left school
after attending for a number of years.
when we bear these facts in mind, it will be
seen that an enrolment of 70 per cent
makes a remarkably good showing.
In the past two years, eight school houses
have been erected in this county. One of
them is the new craded school building In
the city of Hendersonvi1le, which was com
pleted last year at a cost of $4,000 and has
elected the highest praise of the State Su-
p~erintendent of Education and other expert
authorities.
Henderson county is one of the younger
and smaller counties of the State; until
about thirty years ago, it was without a
railroad; even now its resources are not half
developed; but its educational advance has
been steady and rapid. The q. S. census
returns Of 1910 show a smaller percentage
of illiteracy here than in the State as a
whole; they also show a very much smaller
percentage of iliteracy here than was show
by the census of 1900. Before the next
census is taken, i1literacy will have practi-
cally disappeared from Henderson county.
The county superintendent of education is
W. S. Shitle who was appointed to that po-