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

1
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 LOO
children IN the state who were
securing no schooling whatever,
for the reason that they were
unable to reach any school.
There were the same year 1888
children in the state who had
less than four months of school
and 10,062 who were provided
with less than six months
terms. It 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 a
school of their own. Illiterate
children from twelve to sixteen
years of age are to be found in
several Montana counties.
Some 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:
eve are six and one-fourth
miles from school. We have
lived here ten years this fall
and the district has never made
any effort to furnish our five
children a 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:
eve 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
d 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 to
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 1913 there was a
teacher hired for here but she
refused to teach in such &
building.
8'We have offered to haul al |
the material and do the work |
for a new school building, and |
five different men have offered |
to give the necessary land for
the school grounds. The school |
board had offered us a school, |
out when we went in to see
about getting it, we were ad-
vised there was not enough
money to allow us a school out
n this vicinity"
Property Escapes Load.
We must not overlook the fact
hat over $35, 100000 worth of
in Montana last year
vas without any special levy
or school purposes whatever.
t can readily be seen that it. is
lot poverty of the state, but
Unequal distribution of wealth
md the unequal burden of tax
ltlon that stands in the way of
educational progress in humid
eds of rural and village COM
1t must be borne in mind that
t is largely corporation wealth
which causes high valuations in
pots throughout our country.
nd also that the corporations :
re the last taxpayers to object !
Q a school tax, provided it is /
lightly used. They do object :
7hen money is spent reckless {
just because the trustees do !
o know what else to do with it /
hen children less than twenty t
nles away are going without | +
ny schools at all. The first ]
from corporation is /
ct to be heard nv the state 10 !.