The Pulaskian., 1916-03-10
PUBLIC EDUCATION IN ARK
 ANSAS.
No. 4. A Better System of Taxation.

By pr. J. R. Jewell, Dean of School of
 Education, University of Arkansas.
 No school revenue system Is good enough for Arkansas that does not give to every child within the state at least seven months a year of ele- mentary instruction. No revenue sys- tenn from now on will be quite good enough for our splendid state unless It offers to every qualified boy and girl free high school education. Sev- eral of our neighboring states do this. and we cannot afford to have people Tn our border counties feel they must move across the state line to have their children well educated.
 Any acceptable school revenue sys- tenn must provide that this education be furnished and paid for by the local school unit, if possible without excess sive taxation; if not, then the state must stand good for what is wanting. We shall never have school system in any way worthy of our boys and girls until Arkansas adopts as her educational motto: Local geograpny must and shall have no place in the education of our children It must no longer be possible for an Arkansas child to be denied an education be- cause he lives on the wrong side of the road and so is in poor school district with little taxable property.
 Arkansas must go back to the ad- vice of Thomas Jefferson, that great Commoner, who said Our country will decay unless we have a system of instruction which will reach every de- scription of our citizens. from the richest to the poorest This principle was my earliest public concern, and 1t shall be the latest in which shall permit myself to take an interest No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness" He also regarded 1t as an economic question, and forever set tied the equity of taxing all the wealth of the state to distribute not in any percapita way, but rather placing 1t in the places of greatest need, when ho said: If children are untaught. their ignorances and vices will in the future cost us much dearer in their consequences than it would have dono in their correction by good educa- tion."
 Speaking by and large, the average school district of this state, city or rural, is not able to raise enough money by taxation to support as good school as are common in our neieh- boring states. Many Arkansas com. munities, indeed probably most of them, are perfectly willing to vote | larger school tax than is now possi- ble under our present constitution. The last Sage Foundation report showed that Oklahoma spends an. nually 75 cents on her public schools per every one hundred dollars of wealth, while Arkansas spends only 29 cents. The amendment now be. fore the people of our state allowing communities if they wish to tax them selves at a higher rate than is now legal must carry, else our sovereignty as people Is in danger. Indeed it is hard to understand why a state. should place any constitutional limit of taxation for education upon 1ta people. It is like saying by law that no family shall spend more than Sd much per week for food
 To have good schools for our chIl. dren we shall have to allow any com munity to tax itself twice the present legal limit, and then have the state step in and aid wherever the commun- ity has so little taxable property that it cannot even then maintain good school for minimum of say seven months Gin many states it is put at eight months). The state must then pay the difference. Last year there were some 100000 children not in school at all, and some day they will all vote.
 As matter of self-protection to | good citizenship Arkansas should pro- vide good public school education for every boy and girl
 The solution is township or conn. ty tax for school purposes instead of the present district tax, which will do away at one stroke with the more ob- vious inequalities of taxation between adjoining distncts, one rich because | railroad runs through 1t. and the other too poor to afford a school worthy of the name. And then the state must compel attendance for minimum of seven months Of every child, and pay any balance that is yet nece6oorr 1o. mainfain the school 2zszzz x