The Cordova daily times., 1916-01-15
MORE. MONEY |S NEEDED F0R
 SCHOOLS

Governor Strong, in his annual re. port, says that more funds are needed for the schools of the territory and treats the subject as follows:
 twenty-five per cent of the Alaska fund is set aside each year for the support of schools outside of incorpor- ated towns. The schools within in corporated towns are maintained in part by license taxes laid by the fed eral government, and covered into the municipal treasuries for the use of the municipalities and in part by To- cal taxation The amount received from the Alaska fund for the support of schools depends upon what the business of trade licenses produce each year; it is therefore variable. Hitherto the sum accruing from that source for the use of the schools has been ample to maintain them. The average sum needed to maintain a school outside of incorporated towns is $2,OO0. There were 31 of these schools in the school year 1914-15, en- tailing an expenditure of $61, ,426.92. Twenty-Five per cent of the Alaska fund may produce $60,000 annually or it may not. During the present school year there will be at least 38 schools requiring expenditures of ap- proximately $76,0OO. There promises, then, to be a deficit in the amount necessary for their maintenance, and unless this deficiency can be supplied the only alternative left will be to close some of the schools or shorten the school term, which is now nine months. There will be available, however, for schools of the kind un- der discussion the sum of approxi- mately $10,000 appropriated for school purposes by the territorial leg islature from territorial funds but even with this addition there will be deficiency in the sum required. l therefore recommend that the per centage of the Alaska fund set aside for the maintenance of schools in Alaska be increased to 50 per cent. If this is done, there will still remain 40 per cent of the fund to be used for road purposes and 10 per cent for the Alaska indigent fund. It is with reluctance that I am compelled by exigiency of the situation to recom- mend that the road fund percentage be reduced. But the education of the children who are growing up in Alas ka should be considered a matter of first importance. The American pub lie school is an institution that is dear to the heart of every genuine Ameri'
 can, and that 1t is the duty of the state to educate the children of the state is automatic; and this is espec- ially true as applied to the children
 of Alaska. They are growing up here
 and it is here that they will assume lthe full duties and responsibilities oi
 citizenship, and they should be pre- pared for it through education as com Ipletely as possible. An increase oi the allotment for school purposes
 should appeal to Congress without the
 necessity for extended argument. The
 Congress annually appropriates cer- l tain sum to be used, through the wal department, for constructing and
 maintaining military roads and trails | in Alaska. This appropriation may we'll be increased to a sufficient eX-
 tent to make up what will be lost by
 diverting the additional 25 per cent
 to the Alaska fund for the education of the children of the territory.
 "The territorial legislature at it's I1915 session enacted two laws per taining to the schools of Alaska. One
 of these laws provides for the ere ation of a board of education to be composed of the governor of the ter ritory, who is ex-officio superintend- ent of public instruction, the treasurer of the territory, and the assistant su- perintendent of public instruction.
 Provision is also made for the latter,
 whose salary, office and other expen-
 ses are to be paid from territorial funds. Another provision requires
 the introduction of a uniform course of study in all the public schools of