Evening capital and Maryland gazette. (Annapolis, Md.) 1910-1922, 1915-12-02
TO COMPEL ATTENDANCE
At PUBLIC SCHOOL
State Wide Law Needed for Com.
pulsory School Attendance.
SLOW DECREASE In IILITERACY.
Facts Of Interest and Present Con-
ditions in Maryland Where Anne
Arundel Stands.

| compulsory school attendance law
The law of 1912 requires school attend
ance in Baltimore city, makes it op-
tional in seventeen counties and speci-
| fically exempts six counties from its
| operation.
This condition of affairs raises sew
| eral fundamental questions in the light
| of a number of facts which are to be
| found in the reports of the United
States Census and of the Maryland
State Board of Education.
l.Why Should You be Interested i'm
Securing Attendance at School by
Maryland Children!
A. Since 1900 Maryland has steadily
ranked thirty-second among the forty
eight states in the percentage of illit-
eracy of native whites, ten years of age
and over.
B. At the low rate of decrease in il
| literacy with our present school ma
chinery, and public interest in educa-
tion, it will be 1850 before all the ma
tive white voters of Maryland will be
able to read and write.
2. Can You Tell What Becomes of
VuI
A. Last year the State of Maryland
apportioned school tax of about 1924
per child on the numeration of 252,OSl
children i'm the counties.
OF these 159.7S6 was the total num-
ber of different pupils in our county
schools; of these 146,714 were enrolled
on January 1,1915; of these ,003 was
the average number in attendance in
| the year 1914-15. What has become of
gotten on the registers of the schools
in our counties?
| b. Who shall receive the benefits of
special State taxes? THE State has
no right to levy and collect taxes for
specific purpose, then permit that pur-
| pose to be defeated at the hand of i'm
| different or selfish parents. For the
| State, under the mandates of law, to
collect taxes for the education of its
! children and fail to give the education
| to the legal benefciaries is moral
crime, if not statutory one. In this
connection one hears much about the
| sacred rights and personal privileges
of the parent who neglects or refuses
to send his child to school. Has the
helpless child no sacred rights? Has
the State no privileges? The tendency
to shift from the home these functions
which properly belong there is regret
able. One of these functions is to train
the children for their duties and re-
sponsibilities in the social organism.
Society itself is imperiled whenever
its members are unfit. One of the es-
sentials of fitness is what we call
education Prof William H. Hand,
State High School Inspector of South
Carolina
3. Do You Hesitate to Lend Your Ef-
forts to Secure Compulsory School
Attendance Becaues of Our Race
Problem?
If so, these facts will interest you:
A. In the State last year 42.0SS white
children whose names were on school
registers were out of school, as com
pared with 14,500 colored children who
did not go to school. Shall the Hitter
acy of the negro child cost Maryland
the illiteracy of nearly three white
children?
attendance. the negroes in Maryland
have reduced the illiteracy of the mem
bers of their own race of ten years OF
age and over from SOL per cent. in
1890, to 35.1 per cent in 1900 and to
23.4 per cent. in 1910.
At this rate of decrease illiteracy
among the Maryland negroes ten years
old and over wiz have disappeared in
1880
4. Present Condition i'm Maryland.
A Under the law of 1912. eight
counties are making an effort to Sc
cure larger attendance of children
Baltimore. Caroline, Dorchester. Har-
ford. Montgomery, Prince George. Queen
Anne, and Talbot. Reports from these
counties show a slight increase in en-
rollment. and a high increase in aver
age attendance for the months when
the law is enforced
In Baltimore the schools were class
flied into suburban and rural groups
the children of the suburban being re-
quired to attend the entire school year
and the children of the rural to attend
a minimum of one hundred consecutive
days. The response to the law has
been good.
Caroline county showed an increase
of 25 per cent in average attendance
the first year after the adoption of the
law and a normal yearly increase since
In Talbot the law is well enforced in
spite of the large percentage of ne
groes. The powers of attendance of
Ger have recently been given to the
County School Worker at cost of s20t
a year, which is paid by the School
Board
Hartford works in cooperation with
the probation officer of the local Ju-
venile Court. and the compulsory pc
riod is now five months
Queen Anne and Dorchester have 2