The herald and news. [volume] (Newberry S.C.) 1903-1937, 1914-11-20
Special School Mania.

PSSS
cial taxes in local school districts was
commendable and added a great deai
Of impetus to the cause of education.
In the beginning the districts were
made of good size and shape, and the
funds were used for building good
Sc ool houses and maintaining a
competent and adequate teaching
force.
The spirit and purpose of these
special taxes is still commendable,
but the working O: tne present undi-
gested system is not only waste OF
money but entails great deal Of
useless work on county auditors.
We have recently had opportunity
to look pretty fully into the tax de-
partment of Newberry county, and
especially, tie special school SIS EN-
Of tat county, and the facts show a
condition that must not only mean a
waste of tex :unds, but a jumble0
unsystematic method Of levying and
collecting the tax that must be posi-
ta,ey distracting to tie tax depart
ment And Newberry is not alone
in this. We find che same condl-
ticns prevail 1ere in Ajobeville. Any
little section of the countY that may
have the very ,auGable desire to I'M
prove school conditions can vote a
special TAX. The law does not limit
the time within which this may be
done, and hence, the auditor may be
called upon even within week Of
sending off, his abstract, to set apart
the property of t at section for a
special scaool tax. In doing this he
calls in the school trustees, to say
how much of this mans or that
mans property lies within the dis
trict, and it not infrequently hap
pens that one mans land is divided
between three districts. This div g
ion is made not by the Taxpayer,
not by survey, but as mere matter
of guessing by the trustees. The re-
suit is that numerous unavoidable
errors creep in, and the comptroller
generals office must be beselged
from all sections of the State to cor
rect them.
Again, under tie present system,
in most instances, the school districts
are too small and too irregular to be
made tax districts, hence an extra
book, almost equal in size to the
county treasurer's duplicate, must
be made up, and the items from this
book must be interlined on the treas
urer's duplicate To balance these
items out on the treas drer's dupli-
cate is not only tedious and difficult,
but requires the greatest possible care
to protect tie treasurer against loss.
The law pro..ides that all poll
taxes paid in a certain district shall
be expected in that district. Under
the present system of leyying special
school taxes in most of the counties
it is next to impossible to comply
With, this requirement of the law;
hence the county superintendent dis
, tributes the poll tax per capita of pu-
pills enrolled, as he does the three mill
tax This works to the detriment i
the sc1cols in populous districts.
But leaving out of consideration
the great amount of extra and un-
necessary work entailed on the aud
itor and treasurers offices, by reason
Of this unsystematic process Of levy
ing special scnool taxes, the pittance
OF taxes levied in many of the small
er districts is being literally wasted
For instance, the levy in one small
district in Newberry county amounts
10 only about $31OO, a sum INSULT
icient either to aid in paying teachers
or N building better houses.
One township in Newberry county
is cut up into ten school districts.
Only one of these receives sufficient
funds to materially aid the cause of
education. TIE result is that the ex-
ira levy can do little more than add
a few dollars to tie teachers salary
without materially lengthening the
school term.
The general plan of levying spe-
cial taxes should not be discouraged
and it is not our purpose tc discouF-
age it in the slightest degree, but We
do urge more system both in the sys-
TEN Of levying the tax and of ex-
pending it. There should be a gen
eral resurvey of the counties into
school districts, about twice the size