Newark post., 1919-07-02
PATRONS REQUEST
SCHOOL BOARD TO
ADOPT CODE
Continued from Page y

ing an education. Such a right
would be a monstrous thing.
Article 10 of the Constitution
declares that the State shall pro-
vide a general and efficient system
of free public schools. This is the
vital article with regard to school
legislation and nothing is said of
the necessity Of a two-thirds vote.
When this is not specified, accord
ing to parliamentary usage, a ma
jority vote is sufficient. When
objections have been raised, he
said, the special districts look at
Article which deals with corpora
,tions instead of Article 10 which
gives to the General Assembly the
right to pass laws establishing an
efficient school system. To prove
that special districts are not "cor-
porations but have semi-corporate
powers, he referred to the passage
of the compulsory school law and
other laws binding upon special
districts whose constitutionality
were not questioned as requiring
two-thirds vote. Counties have
semi-corporate powers, can sell
land sue, have their own seal and
other things which corporations
may do, but no one has questioned
the constitutionality of the Code
as applied to the rural schools.
Likewise, no one questioned the
constitutionality Of the General
Laws passed by the General AS
sembly in 1898 because they did not
receive two-thirds vote.
Mr.. Hoffecker asked if the Code
repealed all previous laws relating
to running the schools. Receiving
an affirmative reply he questioned
the status of a district which did
not accept the Code. Mr., Ridgely
gave it as his opinion that the pres
ent officers would continue de facto
until an adjustment could be made
and would likely operate under the
provisions Of their special act.
He could not see, he said, why
a district should elect to stay out.
The Code is an honest endeavor to
better conditions that everyone
admits are bad and is worth a trial.
Since special district will have
under the Code all the powers it
has under the present system, and
since the status Of the district not
electing to accept the Code depends
entirely on what the State Board
will do in the matter, since it will
probably mean the loss of the best
and most progressive teachers, he
could not see why there should be
any question of accepting Civic
pride and civic duty require bet
terment Of the old system and stay
ing outside is not a high position
to take in this day of big things.
WHY NOT PUT UP TO COURTS
Replying to a question as to VIII.
the Governor would not put tn,
matter up to the courts for a deci
sion, Mr.. Ridgely said he personal
ly didn't know why he should de
sire to. If he had not believed il
it's constitutionality, he would no
have signed it, and every lawye
with whom Mr.. Ridgely had talked
had been convinced that there i
no question of its constitutionality
WHY SPECIAL DISTRICTS HAVE
DECISION
To Mr.. Hoffecker's question VIII,
the special districts were given /;
decision, Mr.. Ridgely replied tina
there was an objection to passing
it otherwise partly because Of th'
misunderstanding with regard tt
the corporate" powers and partly
because Of the unusual powers
which the special districts have
hitherto enjoyed under special acts
Reference to the special act fol
this district developed the fact that
this was granted in 1898, whereas
the general law of 1898 repealed
all previous laws and Newark has
not been operating under the spec
ial act since that time as Mr.
Rideely proved by having read
the article relative to receiving
dividends.
Concerning the receiving Of divi-
dends if the Code is not accepted
he said that was a matter for the
State Board to decide.
REVENUE UNDER CODE
To question from DR.. Rowan
regarding the personnel of the new
Board if the Code were accepted,
he explained that the law specific
ally requires that three be chosen