The Little River news., 1916-03-25
III. ADVANTAGES OF A COUNTY UNIT.
Ey J. R. Jewell, Dean School of Edn-
 cation University of Arkansas.

UNIT.
 By J. R. Jewell, Dean School of Edn-
 cation University of Arkansas. The most important reform needed
 ID our Arkansas school system is tue 1 abolition of the district as the unit ot school government and the substitu- ,lon therefor of the county. The school | district is an artificial unit, estao-
 nshed for single and special pur-
 pose, and like nothing else under heaven; consequently our schools are
 governmental outcasts, bearing no re-
 latlon to the county government
 which, for every other function, is the
 only recognized unit It is in such a school system alone that one sees | three times as many officers as teach
 CTS, which is just like an army with three times as many officers as sol
 diers or business concern with three times as many foremen as laborers. There should be no words of abuse for school trustees. Many of them are honest and hOnorab men. But, in selecting 25,000 officers for any ad ministrative function, 1t is folly to ex- pect that many of them should have
 an intelligent conception of the Gu. ties to be performed. The duties of school officials are peculiar, and re- ! quire culture, business acumen, higr aims for human progress, and capac. ity for intelligent leadership. But the prevailing sentiment in a majority of districts is that anybody will do Tor
 school trustee. The school district IS so small that few men care to incur the displeasure of their friends and i neighbors in trying to perform the du- ties required of school trustees.
 There are some who cling to tne district system because, they assert, it is the most democratic form of school government. On the contrary,
 it is the most autocratic. When an i election is held, the vote is, by no l means, an indication of the popular
 will.
 The school district is democracy gone l to seed, worthless inheritance from Massachusetts, from whose syseem our own was copied at it's beginning. But Massachusetts, after disastrous experience similar to our own, dis
 carded her system many years ago. and one of her distinguished sons,
 Horace Mann. had declared that the school district is the greatest biunder
 in the whole history of educational | legislation"
 By makinfs the county the unit of
 school government, it is obvious that it's citizens would manifest the same 1 interest in the administration of its
 schools that is now had in other gov
 ernmental functions. In the cities the | best citizens are selected by the en-
 tire municipality to control the
 schools, and the whole city contributes
 to their support.
 Under the county system there would
 be an average of five or six school off
 cials. Surely it would be easier to select
 school board of this limited number 1 who would have and would manifest
 an interest in popular education, than it would be to secure three times as
 many superior men as there are schools. An1. too, it is equally ob-
 vious that since thts board would be elected by ;ne whole municipality,
 the electors would hold them to a
 strict accountability for the success. | full administration of other county af.
 fairs.
 This matter of county unit is ln-
 extricably tied up with the matter of
 better system of taxation. which will i be the topic of the next article in this series. Every county in Arkan- sas presents examples of adjoining
 school districts, one of which with
 very low taxation can raise more
 money for school purposes than it can
 the legal limit cannot raise enough ] to maintain a school fit to send the l children of the community to. For instance, in Monroe County, District No. l has six times the assessed vaiu-
 ation of District No. 26, adjoining it,
 although it has only two more white pupils, and can raise annually for
 school purposes $l,76S.21, while the latter district can raise a maximdpn I of $500 90. District No. 3S, that ad- joins No 26 has valuation of only , $17,0O0, and so can raise maximum of only Sl19.31. Every principal of democracy urges that every child in
 Monroe County-and every other coun- ty of our state have equal onportuni. 1 deq for fat9 0lreation with every other child How unfortunate indeed
 are those children of such districts as No 3s in Monroe County compared
 with those of District No. l, until Xe have a county unit for their bensnt