Middletown transcript. [volume] (Middletown, Del.) 1868-current, 1919-02-22
BETTER SCHOOLS FOR DELA.

ICOlnsnunlcateuI
On Tuesday evening, at the New
Century Club House, meeting was
held in furtherance Of Governor Town. !
sends plan of weeks campaign for
better schools in Delaware and interest
ing addresses were made by DR.. 5. &.
Michel, President of Delaware College, |
Professor Wilbur Jump, Superintendent
of Schools for New Castle County, and
Phineas Morris, Principal of the Newark
Public Schools. The theme of all the
speakers and the keynote of the meet
ing was the proposition to endorse the
proposed law now before the General
Assembly in the nature of a school code.
The unfortunate part of the matter was
that none of the speakers told what the
law was, nor could they do so to the
satisfaction of the audience, or at least
to large part of il. The proposed law
is voluminous, covering more than 100
pages of typewriter matter, and re-
quiring two hours in the reading when
lHITOUuC6U Ill CIlC IWO hOuSOo. ~ RNA7
ports to be framed in accordance with
the report of Messrs. Fexner and Bach
man of the General Educational Board,
after survey of the present school
system, or as they find it to be, lack of
system. But hasty reading OF the bill
in manuscript impressed the writer that
: it was not so framed, and for this reason
cannot agree with the conclusions
reached by some of my friends that any
change is for the better.
The report above referred to at page
SO says:
! '"rhe state board of education should
| become a lay board to which persons
! officially connected as officers or trustees
with institutions affected by its action
should he ineligible. The board should
choose the commissioner of education,
who should be its executive officer
! Matters relating to government ana
legislation belong tc the board; every
! thing having to do with the execution
of the will of the board, such as super
vision, inspection and administration of
the schools, belongs to the commissioner
of education, subject to the boards
authority and approval. Like the
board of directors. the state board
. would establish controlling policies; like
the business manager, the commissioner
won d be responsible for the conduct OF
the schools in conformity with these
policies.
The proposed act devotes about 81
sections to defining the duties and
powers of the state board and the COM
missioner. All of these sections tend to
make the board subservient to the COM
missioner, ,sand one of them, in terms,
expressly provides that the present
| commissioner shall continue in office for
four years Nearly half of the sections
devoted to this question, those relating
| to the state board, show that the in
| tention of the trainers of the act was to
! make the board subservient TO the com
missioner. for the board is limited in its
power to act by words similar to ION
the Recommendation of the commission
er." In practice, should the proposed
law be enacted, the commissioner of
education would be the Car. with no
check on his power, as the act express
l.. continues his term ior the balance OF
the four years for which he was
appointed.
At page 88 of tn: report OF Messrs.
Ffexner and Bachman, they recommenu:
THE powers of the local trustees
over D incipals and teachers should be
limited to filing written charges with
the county board in case of dissatis-
faction, while the dismissal in each
case should be ordered on the recon-
mendation of the county superintendent,
with the approval of the county board. !"
Far from this limited power over
teachers is the provision of the proposed
law. which, as vas explained Tuesday
evening, gives the county board author
. itv to submit names to the local boards
as teachers, but vests in the locals the
right to reject and keep on rejecting
until they get one to suit them. This
opens the way to not having school
, kept open, or not being ready to open
? until it suits the pleasure of the local
, board. Under the recommendation OF
. the report or survey; these local boards
5 were to be named by the county board.
/; But the law provides for their election,
: so it was stated.
- No one is more earnest in the belief
: that there is something seriously wrong
y with our Delaware schools tnan l. But
t I do not believe that the adoption of the
proposed law is going to meet the
trouble. All through the report OF
81. ve, the one thing that stands out is
that not enough money is spent on oul
e schools. This is undoubtedly true. An
y it is not necessarily state. as distin
y guished from district money that il
l. needed. What is needed first OF all, i
IS an awakening of the public interest il
y our schools and in the election OF trus
& tees or commissioners. Does anyon
). believe, for instance that a count.
j. hoard could or would expend the sam
70 amount of money as judiciously and
r. economically as the Board of Educatio
r, of the Middletown Schools expends it
school taxes? If the legislature woul
: provide that for every dollar of stat
a. aid extended to district or schoo