Grand Forks herald. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1916-1955, 1919-01-11
CONSOLIDATING EDUCATIONAL WORK

For the ostensible purpose of simplifying education
al work. Governor Frazier recommends the creation of a
rev board to take the place of.the present board Of reg
ents and the present board Of education, and also to take
ever certain work now performed by the state superin-
tendent of public instruction.
The unification of educational work is a good th.ng
III it is not overdone. 1t is quite possible to do it. The
governors theory is that the entire educational work OF
the state should be under one control, beginning with the
primary and ending with the university. Tho effect Of
acting on that theory would be to establish a tendency
all through the educational system toward making all
the work below college grade merely preparatory to uni
versity work. If all our youth, or the majority of them,
were likely to take a university course, such a plan might
be defended. But the fact is that only a very small mi
nority of our young people do now or will in the future
spend in the schools the sixteen years necessary to cover
the work which begins with the primary grade ana c,as
with the university.
Intelligent men everywhere accept this fact, and
seek to adjust their system to it. Granting that there
must be a continuity in the work for those who take the
entire course, the fact remains that if the highest vel
fare of the greatest number is sought, steps will be taken
to adjust the courses, first in the grammar grades, and
next in the high school, SO that, as nearly as possible,
they will be complete in themselves. College work comes
in a separate class, and its management requires a type
of ability quite different from that which is needed In
the work of the common schools.
However, i'll the consideration of the governors rec
concentrations certain political conditions must be borne
in mind. On the present board of regents there are three
members who were appointed by Governor Frazier and
two who were appointed by his predecessor. These rwo
seem to be in the governors way. Two years ago he tried
to GUST them, and failed. This year the term of DR.. Tay-
'lor will expire, and he will be succeeded. of course, by a
appointed by Governor Frazier. But that will
still leave one hold-over member in the person of Mr..
Crawford. whose term will not expire until July l, 1920.
1t is intolerable for the governor to think of an appointee
of a former administration holding onto a perfectly good
office for another year when there are SO many of the
faithful hankering for jobs, and there are not jobs
enough to go around. This situation would be relieved
by the abolition of the board of regents and the creation
Of a new board, all of whose members could subscribe
to the required declaration of faith.
Then there is<Miss Nelson, state superintendent OF
failed to prevent her election, and, for the moral effect,
if for nothing else, it is desired that she shall be rendered
innocuous. Mcdonald failed to do the trick; the su-
)preme court refused to do it; so it is now up to the leg
stature either to abolish her office or take her work
away from her.
Still further, there is Mcdonald. 1t took a supreme
court order to pry him loose from the office which he
had held. and he is now out of a job. What more natu-
raj than that he should be made superintendent under "a
shall be chosen from without the state. That provision
flee being used as a haven of refuge for some lame duck
All of that can be cured by legislation, and the governor
tells the legislature what he wants done about it.