New-York tribune., 1918-12-09
Who Should Manage the
City's Public Schools
By JOHN MARTIN

city schools, S2,30o,OOo this year. be-
longs TO the Board of Education at all
IN October last the Controller procured
from the Corporation Counsel an opin.
ION reversing the opinion Of Mayo,
MltchePs Corporation Counsel and All,
.nofl1lng the payment of the state
grant INTO the city's fund for the re.
uuc'lon OF taxation. Amazement con.
| sIernat'on and anxiety prevailed
throughout the school system.
Will the Teachers Be
Paid Next January?
Since the Board of Education laid
out ITS expenditures on the assumption
tnat there was no question as to its
right to the tidy state allowance of
S2,3O0,000 it will be unable to pay its
expenses for December and must either
close the schools or repudiate it's OBJ
hgations. Here's pretty mess In
a month or less the Board of Educa-
ton will exhaust its cash in hand, and
teachers will be torn with anxiety as
to whether they will be paid as usual
in the first days of January. 1t is in
credible that the school payrolls will
not be met. Some funds to pay them
must be dug up from somewhere by
the Board of Estimate
While the Board of Education itself
took no steps to challenge the ruling
OF the Controller statutory officers Of
the board. whose official heads cannot
be cut off by the Mayor. Auditor Cook
and Superintendent of Schools Ettinger
aghast at the prospect and bewildered ID
as to their duty under the circum-
| stances, appealed in October to the
State Commissioner of Education for
ruling. AS the State Commissioner
had already declared that the law made
the Board of Education independent of
the Board of Estimate, liberating de-
cision was confidently anticipated.
But City Hall was resolute, and ap-
pealed, in turn, to Justice Chester, of
Albany, for stay of proceedings and
Il writ to prohibit the Commissioner
Of Education from passing upon the
matter. There the affair now stands
with court contest, expensive, OBJ
structive and irritating. between two
city bodies slowly unwinding it's length
Board of Estimate
Seeks Complete Control
Since the Board Of Estimate has ad-
mitted as a consequence of dickering
with the Board of Education that for
next year the Board of Education's s
budget must exceed the state fund
plus the product Of the legal 40 mills,
tISlS CdIl pc UuL one purpose IN 1CS
fighting the issue through, viz, to
prevent the Board of Education from
fixing the details of it's own expendi-
lures. In setting up the school budget
Tor 1919, finally approved by the Board
Of Aldermen last week, the Board of
Estimate has detailed school expendi-
lures so as to give itself complete con-
troll of school administration. 1t has
said exactly how many dollars may
be spent for example, on teaching
history in high schools, how many
teachers may be assigned to each
grade of the primary schools and pre-
clsely how much may be paid for Of
hce boys and stenographers
The budget as laid out is quite un-
workable. 1t is impossible to know
just how many classes of the first
grade, for instance, must be organized
IN September next. And, unless the
hands of the Board of Education are
freed, classes cannot be formed as they
become necessary except with the con-
sent of twelve votes of the Board of
Estimate. Never was more strangling
dictation attempted.
BE it remembered that Mayor Hylan
made the alleged dictaton of school
policies by Mayor Mitchell prime is
sue of his campaign. Teachers and
school officers who voted for him in
nocently imagined that they were vot-
ing to take the benumbing hand of City
Hall off the schools. Already they are
finding where Mayor Mitchell whipped d
them with thongs Mayor Hylan whips
them with scorpions.