Middletown transcript., 1919-09-06
copilau nicatsdl
THE NEW SCHOOL CODE

to get the puble and particularly the
press to understand the PROVISIONS OF
the measure then in process OF making.
Among the papers who were asked to
print articles Of criticism of some fea-
lures of the measure was the Every
Evening, but throughout the State,
there was q spirit Of letting those in
charge of the measure have their own
way. Even after the passage Of the
measure by bare majority vote OF the
House, and that majority secured by
the changing Of the vote OF Represen-
tative McNabb, who stated in,so chang
ing that he was not in favor OF 1t but
was willing to give 1t a chance, every
proposal to have the Courts pass upon
the question has been met by the al
most solid opposition OF the press.
Even your own paper, while according
the freest use Of your columns to such
communications has renamed Silent.
No one Of the newspapers has been
loudest in calling for its acc ptance
than the Every Evening. When the
Newark Board of Education Was hold
ing back from acceptance, that paper
urged prompt and full acceptance. Sew
eral times since the Board OF Educ.-
ton of Wilmington mas had The mattal
under consideration, it has taken i-e
same stand. But apparently, some has
worked his way into the sanctunl Vi
Every Evening with hammer Ia
his hands and succeeded in beating !nto
their heads the necessity Of reading
and looking into the law. Thereupon,
it finds out, as has been repeatedly ex-
planned, that the Code applies to VII
mington with the same force that IL
applies to MiddletoWn. Then comes the
editorial of last Monday and such wall
as goes up. just as long as Every
Evening believed the provisions of the
code only took from such unimporta
places as Newark, New Castle, Middle
town and dozens of other places OF like
towns, the control Of their schools
from Boards of Education elected from
among the citizens of those communi-
ties and gave such control to the State
Board of Education composed of mem
bers appointed by the Governor and in
great majority of such communities
no representation could be had on such
Board, the Code was wonderful piece
Of cons tructive legislation and any per-
son or anybody who dared crtcise it
was not a good citizen. But when
Every Evening learned, as it could have
learned six months ago by cursory
reading OF the code, that as provided in
the very first section of the code, 1.-THE
general administration and supervision
of the free public schools and Of the
educational interests of the State shall
be vested in a State Department of
Education, at the head of which shall
be State Board of Education" &c ",
and that Wilmington is part of the
said State, change comes over the
spirit of the dream. The Code, accord
ing to the editorial referred to, creates
condition that may well be viewed
with apprehension by the people of
Wilmington.
One point that Every Evening makes
is exactly the point that this corre-
spondent made in former cornmunica-
ton to The Transcript. AS stated by
Every Evening, this is as follows: "ln
a word, under the new code, the con
troll of the Wilmington schools would
be virtually removed from the Whining
ton Board of Education and given to
the State Board OF Education, d ma
jority of whose members are not resi-
dents of the city of Wilmington. And
the executive officer of the State Board
of Education, the state commissioner
of education, who is a resident of
Dover, would have authority paramount
to that of our Board of Education and
Of the superintendent OF our public
schools.
There can be no doubt as to the truth
of the above But it is not new. 1t
h,s
as it IS now. 1t was repeatedly called
to the attention of the people of Della
ware through communications to- the
press, and has as repeatedly been an
swered IN one of two ways. Usually.
by short editorial that the writer was
an alarmist, and in one instance by one
of the Wilmington papers by the state
ment that the writer seemed to have a
grudge against A. r. Spaid. then as
now State Commissioner of Education.
So tar as this writer is concerned,
there IS no personal feeling against Mr.
Spaid, and for Mr.. Miller and Mr.. du-
Pont, the two members of the State
Board of Education from this County
both Of whom by the way, are residents
of Wilmington, he has the highest adj
miration and regard. No two men in
the County Of New Castle. in my esti-
nation, have deeper sense Of the i'm
portance of their position and no two
men could better fill them. It is not
the men that have criticised, but the
measure itself. No one doubts the need
of better schools in some localities or in
all But regard should have been paid
to the conditions as they were, and Of
the class Of people that the rural dis
tricts of this state comprise.
Had the sponsors for the law have
taken the people into their confidence,
met them in spirit of doing what is
best for the whole community, shown
them the need of better facilities and
how the code would fill this need and
that though it would probably
cost more to operate our schools in the
future than in the past, every dollar Of
the increased expenses would be appar-
ent in the results obtained, there would
have been a different feeling in relation
to the code Instead of this American
way of doing things, however, those
who were responsible for the code |
adopted the Kaiser plan of introducing
the act on almost the last day for the |
of new business, delaying
the printing thereof, refusing to circu-
late the printed copies, and saying in
effect, "You poor boobs do not know
what is best for you. Pass this and go
home. - And that is exactly what was
done. After attaching more than 40
amendments to the act after midnight |
of the last day Of the session, by a |
bare majority the law squeezed through
The writer asked the editor of one Of |
the leading Wilmington dailies if he
would explain the attitude Of those
papers towards the letters criticising |
the code His answer was there are |
certain big people back of the code and |
we have to stand with them.
The ne0nle who are now paving the |