The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1915-03-12
WITH REGARD TO HIGH SCHOOL
 TUITION FEES

Abatement by Howell Cheney, South
 Manchester, Submitted to the
 Legislative Commission on I Educatfon-)
 1 I believe that we have gone too l far in making our education abso- | Iute1y free. I do wishs however, to 1 again emphasize some Of the consid- | erations which led to the proposal of a scheme of tuition fees, with the hope that the idea underlying it may
 be expressed as g. general principle rather than as a specific application l to high school alone.
 l Down to the time when the older academies of Connecticut were | merged in our high schools, tuition fees universally existed and under lower standards of living they un- 1 doubtedly did constitute 8 serious check upon the desire of parents to send children to high school, of l whose capacities they had given no serious thought as to their adapta- bility to the course they were pur- suing. No one can for an instant doubt that if we paid for a part ot l this education we would value it in- Infinitely more, even though the pay nnent was small Connecticut still imposes a legal obligation upon every l parent to send his children to sch ooI, as well as upon the town to provide l a school to which they can be sent.
 
 l ton law was passed, which was de> signed to close the little district I4schooIs and make for consolidation | in larger graded organizations Where 1 this worked an unreasonabIy hard ! ship upon the parents an appeal was town over the failuFe of the school board to provide transportation, and then to the state board The hear | ings on these transportation eases have been interesting in showing how generally and universally parents ac- cept as a right what they only 9 short time ago shouldered willingly as a Legitimate obligation. We have had I to resist the most ridiculous and i'm possible demands for transportation and it seems to be now accepted as a principle in some conlmuni Ies that l the town is not only under obliga- ton to set a feast of education for every child but to transport him to it. This is only illustrative ot our Iready and thought1ess acceptance of new privileges as canceIHng older and valued obligations. Has not the cancellation gone on far mora rapid l ly than the advantages which have been secured from it
 Tuition fees are said to be- undemo@ cratic as applied to the 16.Qoo chi1-5 dren in our state upon whom we are lsexpending S750. .000 tor h1gn school education. What is the case then of the approximately s0.000 children be- tween the ages of fourteen and eigh- teen who have left the schools and have either made their entry into productive occupations or are at home doing nothing? The majority of those who are in productive occu- pations have either paid direct tuition fees varying from $50 to SA50 an nlIaIly for their yeafs ~ apprentice ship, or have paid the equivalent of a tuition fee in the reduced wages which their tnexperience received over those which trained abilities the same abilities could have secured in unskilled trades. AS regards these 60,00O, it could not be contended that these sacrifices have not contributed to the measuring of their abilities and are the strongest kind of an in centive to their promotion. If this has been true. as regards this 60;O00, for whom the state has spent nothing, what is the ease of the 15.OOO, for whom the state is spending $75O,0OO annually?
 If tuition fees on a direct and straig ightforWard basis are an imprac- ticability, it is perfectly legitimate for us to consider deposits. which might pupils who demo nstrated their abili- ties to meet specific tests. The pro- position would be that the parent or guardian of every student in sec dary courses should make a deposit Of ten dollars annually, which should be returned at the end of the year to those who attained q standing of eighty per cent In the case of those children whose parents were unable to make the deposit, they would none the. less be admitted, provided the children had demonstrated the nec- essary rank of ability in the preced- ing grade, but not, if they had failed. A si1nilar plan to. this has proved eminently successful in evening schools and has correctec most unecononic and thriftIess method of conducting these schools. In the evening schools the deposit has been but one dollar, and it has been re- turned to all of those who attended two-thirds of the sessions. This had the effect of eliminating the per- fectly careless and indifferent pupils who came there either at the com mana of their parents or in the search of amusement. It had the further most healthy effect of making the pupils demand from the schools a definite quality of valuable return for their expenditure of energies. If pupils are spending even so small an amount as one dollar they will see to it that the instruction in evening l schools is of a higher order, is adapted to their requirements and capacities and looks towards a spe- cific end. The result would be the same in the high school. The inn position of a deposit of ten dollars would possibly limit slightly, at the start, the registration in high schools but it would help to eliminate some | of that attendance which does now drag down the average and make for the two wasted years. It would fur ther form a powerful incentive in the minds of the parents towards their checking up the high schools with a view to forming their own opinions as to whether the instruction offered was worth even so moderate a sum as ten dollars aS year. The number l ls.c.l. cI