Middletown transcript., 1916-07-29
BOARD OF EDUCATION
The School District Settlements
Are Very Unsatisfactory
TAXES ARE NOT COLLECTED

The form of settlement with school
districts now used secures some kinds
of information quite satisfactorily, and
some kinds of information just as use
full and valuable are not included at all.
Indeed, the form now in use needs to be
separated into two distinct parts; one
part should become the report of the
Annual School meeting with the lists OF
teachers appointed, as now. The second
part should be the Account of the An
nual Financial Operations. 1t should
show the total value of each kind of
property assessed that is the total
rental values of land, the total values
of personal property, and the totals OF
capItation assessment. 1t should show
the tax rate, as we'll as the total amount
of tax authorized for that school dis
trict At present the only amounts
specified are the amounts to be raised
by tax and by some other method These
items should be clearly set out and the
amount of tax that is expected to be
received from each taxable under each
of the classes of property should be
actually stated.
Next, the amounts of tax received,
the discounts for prompt payment, the
generations, the liens laid on property,
every item of the transactions should
be made part of the report, so that
an account could be balanced with all
these items in it. At present, the re-
port shows the amount of taxes collect
ed, and how these were spent. None
of the other items are available; hence
we lack much information in the COM
putation of our money costs of educa-
ton, to say nothing of the opportunity
which turks in the system to show ia
voritism or conceal populations.
Separate accounts of expenditures of
High Schools are also very desirable
and Necessary For instance, how easily
the dispute which has arisen in many
discussions of the question as to the
cost per year for a pupil in High
Schools, how easily this dispute could
be answered if we had actual facts in
stead of improved assertions or mere
opinions as to whether twenty cents per
day is too little. just enough, or too
much for the state to pay for the at
tendance of pupils in town High
Schools The lack of all these items in
the annual financial statements has
made it impossible to do more than
guess what it costs any district or the
state per child to run its schools. Figures
for this cost have been given and are in
print, but until we can get the facts as
specified above, no figures given out
are more than a guess.
Moreover, the feeling about the
escape from payment of taxes, if ac-
tually known to a community, might
result in an arousal of a righteous in
dignation against persons who regu-
larly do not pay taxes and have not
paid taxes for years. Payment Of school
taxes is public business, and the pub
lie is entitled to know who pays. There
is no doubt that at present the prompt
and cheerful "payers" are carrying
their own load and that of some of the
shirkers and crafty ''hedgers."
While the reconstruction of the en-
tire school tax system is by most per-
sons believed to be the fundamental
educational reform for Delaware, the
reconstruction of the form of annual
school settlement is just as much
needed, and will be more needed if the
tax system is changed.
CHARLES A. WAGNER,
Secretary of State Board of Education.