Evening journal., 1919-10-10
farmers LOCAL.
TAXES DON'T GO
TO STATE BOARD
Continued from First Page.

Continued from Flrst rage.
ries OF the school officials are high or
Ow, reasonable or unreasonable,
Seither does il concern these farmers,
rom the standpoint OF local taxes,
yhat are the expenses OF the State
board OF Education and State superin-
endent.
Under the new school law the farm
FRS of Sussex and Kent do not eOnrub-
ute one cent of local taxes in payment
Of any OF these salaries or any OF those
expenses. The State Of Delaware fOOts
hose bills.
Not only does the school law show
hat 10 be a fact. but the apprOpria-
lions Of the last General Assembly. as
set forth in the Laws Of Delaware, 9Slh
General Assembly, Chapters 30 and 80
show that both the House and the SEN
ate knew that to be a fact and they
made provision for the payment OF
those salaries and expenses out Of the
state funds.
Men who were members OF the Cen
sral Assembly or who occupied various
official positions in that General As
sembly may plead ignorance OF the
school law (althOugh in point Of dem
onstrable fact they were very familiar
with II before It was passed.. but they
certainly cannot plead ignorance OF
Two very simple appropriation bills
which they passed and signed one was
entitled IAN act making appropriations
'or the support and encouragement Of
public schools for the year 1912 The
,ther was entitled AN act making ap-
proprlatiOns for the support and en-
couragement Of public schools for the
year 1920
Such act states that the several
amounts named in this act, or so much
thereof as may be necessary, are here
by appropriated, TO be paid out OF the
Treasury of this State for the follow
ing purposes:
(D For the State Department Of Edu-
cation. including the expenses OF the,
State Board of Education, and the sup
mort and expenses of the Office OF the
state Commissioner Of Education.
l2) For the payment OF teachers eX-
penses for summer school attendance.
30 For the encouragement Of the
OF county schools.
(4) For matching federal funds Tor
vocational education a (Smith-Hughes
Vocational Education Act)
t5) For administration and supervi-
sion Of Vocational Education Smith
Hughes Vocational Education Act)
90 For payment of salaries Of coun-
ty siperintendents, county supervisors
and county attendance officers.
(7) For State aid 20 high schools.
(s) For State aid 20 elementary
schools 10 be paid from funds arising
from the Income Tax law.
f9) For additional State aid 10 ele-
nentary schools.
These two Appropriation acts furnish
conclusive proof that the salaries OF
Ihe state and county school officials
and the expenses Of the state school
officials are not paid by the local
taxes OF the farmer, and therefore 81
makes no difference in his local taxes
whether these salaries and expenses are
high or low.
Every cent OF local school tax taken
from the farmer goes into the farmers
schools.
In addition he gets the benefit OF the
state school fund. which is raised by
Income off Of securities held by the
state Of Delaware. Under the old law
his fund was distributed in "diNi-
lends" 10 each local school district
according TO the number OF teachers u
1ed The law creating the fund stipu-
ates Il shall be spent only for teach
,rs' salaries and school books. Under
he old law the last dividend for teach
ars' salaries and text books amounted
20 about 1929 for every teacher. II
district had three teacher school, IL
received three dividends FOR salaries
md text books. -
Under the new law this fund IS divid-
ID not according 10 the number OF
teachers but according TO the number
m enrolled pupils in the elementary
grades. The larger the enrolment OF
6upils. under high school grades. dis
rict has, the larger will be its dividend.
The dividend amounts to 1913 per pupil
Because IL divided this fund on the
basis Of pupils under high school age,
lhe law had TO make some provision
,or State aid 20 high schools. This the
av does by giving TO each high school
N the secOnd-class State aid equal 10
one-half the total amount paid for the
high school teachers salaries, provided
mat one-half shall not exceed $1,000 in
,ny one year. In other words, If the
.otal teachers payroll OF any high
school of the second class Is 5000 or
less. the state pays half OF It. II 1t IS
more than 1920 annually the state still
pays $500 to it. For high schools OF
he first class the same rule holds. but
he amount guaranteed by the State IS
s2i0O annually instead OF $1,000.
To put it simply. Each second grade
gh school in the State can get $1,000
state aid. to be applied to teachers sal
aries. Each first grade high school can
get s2i00 State aid to be applied to
teachers salaries. These high schools
are the ones to which the children OF
farmers go.
In addition TO an this state aid, the
income tax law provides that the first
S25OOO0 collected I'm income taxes shall
he devoted TO the public schools OF the
state. All income tax collected over
and above s25e.OOO goes TO the State
highway department Item No. (s) Of
the anprOpriatiOn acts as enumerated