The Little River news., 1915-12-08
l. AN EDUCATIONAL SURVEY.
Some Fundamental Problems.

Notwithstanding the commendable growth in our public schools in the past six years recent survey of the schools in all states made by the Sage Foundation shows that in the basis of ! efficiency the schools of Arkansas rank forty-third. This means that so ! far as educational opportunities are concerned there are forty-two better states in which to rear children. This information is humiliating to our state pride, it is alarming to those of us who have children to educate. If it is true we should face the situation | squarely. Evasion and explanation will not mend it. While we are de- nying or apoligizing fifty thousand of our children are every year passin;; | beyond the school age without the op- portunities offered to children ir other states.
 The Rural SchooIs.-These schools | are kept open less than six months of the year, some of them for one month only; they are in charge of teachers who are paid less per year than IS earned by unsliilled laborers, less than | one-sixth of them having had any edu- cation beyond the common school branches and no professional train- ing whatever; considerably less than one-half of the children of school age are in daily attendance; that is, there IS no day when half the children of our
 
 dollars per annum per chilG is expend- ed for maintenance. It is painful to contrast these conditions with those in Illinois, for instance, in which the annual expenditure per pupil is twen. ty-three dollars, or with Washington in which it is thrtytwo dollars. In both of these states the school term is one hundred and seventy days, prac- r tically all of the teachers have nat some professional training, and under compulsory attendance laws all chjI. dren. under sixteen years are in school.
 Special Districts.-In tine villages and larger towns conditions are some what better. The school term is longer, teachers are better paid and therefore better trained, and the per centage of daily attendance is higher. But even here, except in few places, the schools are far below the stand ards in similar places in surrounding states. In many districts the free term of from three to five months has been followed by private term, and in some cases there has been no free term at all payment for tuition having been required of all high school pupils and occasionally from all pupils.
 Teachers.-The chief factor in the efficiency of the schools is the teacher. He must have not only native ability, but training as well.
 School Laws.-The inefficiency of our schools is not due primarily to lack of funds. The source of the trouble lies in our antiquated school laws. Under these and the recent de- cision of the Supreme Court in the State Aid case our public school sys- tenn is about to break down under the demands made upon it by the condi- tions of modern life.
 Remedies. - These unsatisfactory conditions deserve the attention of all thoughtful people. They affect every home and every child in the state. es- pecially those in the rural districts. We need new system with a new SC. of school laws, beginning with the constitution so far as it concerns edu- cation. Among the changes needed to modernize the system are the follow. ing:
 l. The passage at the next general election of the constitutional amend ment permitting local districts to vote Q maximum school tax of twelve mills. 2. A constitutional amendment making the county the principal school unit.
 g. A county board of education with authority to manage the schools of the county.
 A. A county superintendent in each county appointed by the county board of education.
 5. A county high school in each county of the state under the manage ment of the county board of education. G. The adaptation of the common school course of study to the needs of the children by the introduction of industrial courses.
 T. An awakening to the fact that half the children of the state are al ways out of school; eventually they will all vote.-B. w. Torreyson, Little Rock, Arkansas.