The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1919-11-28
twenty to one hundred fifty or


more children growing up in
idleness and ignorance. The
price Cascade county is paying
for the one hundred sixty-seven
children who are going at last
to have school advantages is
cheap compared with the loss
Montana is suffering from the
lowering of her citizenship thru
the limited educational opportu-
mites of thousansd of her child
rem.
The last biennial report of the
state department of education
shows that in 1918 there
were approximately 1,700
children III the state who were
securing no schooling whatever,
for the reason that they were
unable to reach any school.
There were the same year a ,593
children in the state who had
less than four months of school
and 1O,O62 who were provided
with less than six months
terms. l; is not unusual to
find communities with eight or
ten children from five to twenty
miles from any school, and
without the means to support Il
school of their own. Illiterate
children from twelve to sixteen
years of age are to be found in
several Montana counties.
Seine Significant Letters.
The following extracts from
letters received from anxious
parents within the past month
tell the situation in many COM
munities where children are
without school advantages:
I'VE are six and one-foulth
miles from school. We have
lived here ten years this fail
and the district has never made
any effort to furnish our five
children 4 way to school. We
have always had to move away
or let the children go horseback
and the last few years we have
had no crops. so it is impossible
to move to town this winter for
that purpose
! Another writes:
1--WE are three families hav-
ing eight children past six years
of age who absolutely must be
! in school. 1t is four and one
half miles to the nearest school
house, which is too far for little
children to walk. Last fall we
were compelled to move to town.
This is very inconvenient as we
have stock to care for besides
the expense makes it impossible
this year"
Still another:
'The school board allowed us
Il teacher in the fall Of 1917 and
school was held in a ranch house
for a few weeks. Then one OF
the town teachers was called tC
the army and our teacher WAS
taken from us, leaving us with
out any school till the summer
of 1918 when we had between
two and three months of school
In the fall of 1918 there was q
teacher hired for here but she
refused to teach in such I;
building.
"We have offered to haul al
the material and do the work
for new school building, and
five different men have offered
to give the necessary land fol
the school grounds. The schoo
board had offered us a school
but when we went in to see
about getting it, we were adj
vised there was not enough
money to allow us school out
in this vicinity
Property Escapes Load.
We must not overlook the fact
that over $35,000,O00 worth Of
property in Montana last veal
was without any special levy
for school purposes whatever
1t can readily be seen that it is
not poverty Of the state, but
unequal distribution of wealth
and the unequal burden of tax
alton that stands in the way Of
educational progress in hund
reds of rural and village com
) munities.
1t must be borne in mind that
. it is largely corporation wealth
which causes high valuations il
spots throughout our country
, and also that the corporation:
: are the last taxpayers to objec'
to school tax, provided it i:
rightly used. They do objec'
when money is spent reckless
: ~ just because the trustees dc
: no know what else to do with i