Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1914-02-15
Committee Makes Recon.
! mendationS for VermoDt'S
Educational System

New York, Feb. 14.-Tne first cri.
tical investigation of all the educa,
tional facilities of any state in the
Union has Just ben completed by the
Carnegie foundation for the advance.
Ement Of teaching. The state selected
was Vermont, and the work was I'M
dertaken at the request Of a commit
teeSof the state legislature, which de.
sired to examine and improve its en-
tire educational system.
A summary of the foundations re
port was made public today. One OF
the recommendations is the transfer
to the. public schools OF the money
that the state now gives to colleges.
The University OF Vermont, Middle
hurry College and Norwich university
no one of which. is owned OF CONTROL
ed by the state, have recently receiv-
ed increasing state aid, a total of $780,.
900 a year; in l909t 5000 in 1917, and
100000 in 1913. The report recon-
niends the withdrawal of these sub.
sides because Vermont cannot afford
a regular state university; because 1t
is unwise to give public money and
public prestige to private corpora
lions; because the colleges have not
used their subsidies wisely, and be-.
cause they got. along very we'll before
they were given state aid and it is
evident that they will be cared for
through private benevOlence.
i. The report says that the University
OF Vermont neglected agriculture and
used its appropriation for a medical
school that can never be successful
with the small amount of clinical ma
terial that is available in Burlington,
Norwich university used it's appro.
priation for engineering in a location
and with an equipment far inferior to
those of the University of Vermont.
Middlebury college also used its ap-
preparation for subjects already pro-
vided by the other institutions and for
q department for training high school
teachers, of which the state has al
ready an o%versupply. The effort to
gain these SUBSIDIES from the legis-
5~lature, moreover, according to the
report, involved the institutions in an
Unfortunate educational and financial
rivalry.
The public schools. on the other
hand, need money. They provide the
entire education OF. more than nine
tenths Of the children in the state.
Half Of the teachers, however, have
had no professional training and are
paid only nine dollars a week or less.
The report recommends that the
state spend On the common schools
what 1t now gives the colleges and
as much nor as it can afford. Civ
ing the teachers better training and
better salaries, providing them with
more aid and guidance through bet
ter supervision and a more helpful
state administration. III is recon-
mended that the dozen training class.
es for teachers that were established
in the high schools in 1910 be null
tiplied, SO that every new teacher in
the state shall be a high school grad.
uate with professional training.
classes graduated more than a
hundred such teachers last year, and
soon will be able to supply the entire
four hundred than the state needs
annually. The two state normal
schools, the abandonment of which
is recommended, have provided less
than a dozen such teachers in a year.
1t is further recommended that the
teachers, together with a new state
commissioner Of education, several
deputy commissioners and a number
of supervisors, gradually work out
a new program of tudies for the
schools which, without interfering
with its academic character, will re-
late it more closely to the daily life
of the pupils 1t is recommended
that the high schools include voca-
tional courses; that there be special
agricultural schools, and that the work
of the state agricultural college BIO
made of greater value to the farmers.
Further school consolidation, VITA
transportation wherever necessary. is
ais recommended both for elimen-
tary and high schools, SO that com.
munl.ies may be within reach of first
rate schools instead of scattering its
money and care among a large num-
Der that are inferior.
Referring further to the existing
in Vermont, the report says
1T Is very good in many respects.
The governor recommended such a
Study as has been made by the foun.
dation to the legislature and the leg
islature in November, ---l, CONSTITUTE.
ed an educational commission with
Judge John H. Wilson. Of the supreme
court, as chairman and representa-
tive citizens like Theodore !. Vail,
president Of the American telegraph
and Telephone company, and Frank
H, Brooks, president Of the Fairbanks
Scale company. and representa-
like Nicholas Murray But
Ter. president Of Columbia university,
New York as members. In February
1913 this commission asked the Car
negie foundation for the advancement
Of teaching to undertake the study.
Under the direction of its president.
Henry S. P%ritchett. a OGDEN members
q the staff of The foundation and
SPECIALISTS from Columbia, Harvard
and Wisconsin universities and from
the United States bureau of Sstand-
ards devoted six months to study in
the field and an equal time to the ex-
animation and presentation of their
records and suggestions.