Evening star., 1916-01-09
EXPLAINS PROPOSED
NEW SCHOOL LAW

N[W OUnUUL Inv
Continued from First Page.)
operation and eventual ineficiency and
harm to the schools.
Advocates Business Basis.
"Any of you who are business men I
think will agree with me that it is gen.
orally considered that with any busi-
ness of any size you must have one
manager to be successful. I feel sure
that any of you who are engaged in
business would hesitate to go into an
arrangement where any one in your
business organization. doing work for
which you are responsible. would oc-
cupy a position over which you did
not have control. Would you place
large and important portion of your
business in the hands Of some one else
to conduct independently and without
see that such method would bring
constant trouble to you and to him? 1t
might be said that such an arrange
ment does exist, in fact, in the case of
a partnership.
There is this very great difference,
however, in such a comparison. Part
ners choose each other In our school
system the President selects one part
ner, the Supreme Court of the District
of Columbia selects the other. A part
nership formed in that manner. there
fore, leaves out of consideration the
al1-important question as to whether
the temperaments, characters and per-
sonalities of the partners are har-
monious But we do not need to cite
that difference dealing with the poten-
talities for bad results under the pres
ent division in the organization of the
school system. Even partners who Sc
lect each other have serious differences
of opinion. amounting, frequently. to
quarrels and ruptures Of the partner
ship. 1t will be generally conceded,
believe, by any one who knows any
thing about modern business that the
most efficient organization is corpora
tion, the stockholders of which elect
board of directors, who. in turn elect
a president or general manager whose
authority is supreme in the conduct of
the business. and upon whom, exclu-
sively, is impressed the responsibility
for results.
"our suggestion is nothing more nor
less than this. that the great and i'm
portant business of educating our
experience has demonstrated to be the
best form of administrative organiza-
ton"
Referring to the criticism that the
proposed plan would place the public
schools in politics. the Commissioner
said:
II have heard it said that the Com
missioners wanted to make this change
80 that they could use the positions of
teachers for political appointments. l
would consider it great pleasure to
entertain in my office for one day any
gentleman who suggests that we desire
any such thing. Take II from one who
knows from bitter experience. that that
is the last thing with which any Com
missioner would Intentionally burden
himself. Our path is sufficiently thorny,
as it is. with the large number of en-
ployes now serving under US. and sub
ject to no protection from removal
save the common sense and common
decency of the Commissioners. without
deliberately increasing the number of
positions by 1.500 or 1000. That would
be the act of a madman, who had no
regard whatever for his nervous sys-
TEN or for his future. 1t seems to me
nothing more nor less than hysteria
that would cause any teacher. or any
friend of any teacher. to imagine for
one instant that the Commissioners of
| the District of Columbia would give
even a moments consideration to a
thing which would mean nervous pros
tration for the Commissioners and con-
| tinuous apprehension for the teachers.
with reference to the charge that the
plan would take the schools out of the
hands of the people, the Commissioners
continued:
"In this connection ! should like to
call attention to the fact that two of
the three members of the board of
Commissioners must be residents of the
| District of Columbia: to the fact that
there is no such requirement as to the
| judges of the Supreme Court of the
District of Columbia and to the further
| for hot no nf ha
six judges are citizens of other states
| two of them of Maryland, one of New
Jersey, one of Vermont and one of
Ohio The only Washingtonian on the
| Supreme Court of the District of Co
! Iumbia, incidentally, was drafted from
| the District building for that position
| I would also like to call attention to
| the fact that the president of the
board of education is a citizen of New
Hampshire. and votes there. although the
! law requires that members of the board
of education shall be residents of the
District of Columbia, and also to the
fact that one of the present members
| of the board of education was a citizen
| of Virginia and voted therein at the
time Of his appointment do not see in
view of these circumstances upon what
| theory 1t Is contended that the per-
petuation of the present system means
| local control of schools. whereas to
nut all the system under the Commits
sioners would mean outside control
Cites Commissioners Policy.
I'VE have recently had a slight dis
| agreement with the board of education
| which 1 think illustrates the policy of
the Commissioners in this respect We
received one day a letter from the
board of education recommending that
the new Park view schooIhouse be
named the Lemon G. Hine School. We
| wrote a letter to the Park View Ctti-
zens' Association. whose activities had
| been very largely responsible for get
| ting the appropriation for the build
| ing, and asked for an expression of
| opinion as to the name of the school.
informing them that the board had
recommended Lemon G. Hine. The as
eociation voted to name the school the
| Park View School, and so informed the
| Commissioners. We then wrote to the
| board of education acquainting them
| with the expression of the wishes of
| the citizens of Park View and asking
them IL they desired to make any
| change in their recommendation They
wrote back that they did not where-
upon we named it the Park View