The Bismarck tribune., 1919-02-28
SCHOOL CONTROL
BILL TOO MUCH
FOR SOME M. P'S

Continued from Page One)
House Bill 81 Kepeals all laws. relat
ing to the certification of teachers
Does Senate Bill l34 now take care o.
this, making House Bill unnecessary
Has House Bill 81 been merged into
Senate Bill 1874?
.i"To my mind Section 9, which
reads, The powers and duties of tbs
state superintendent of public In
struction as heretofore provided by
law shall be subject to the ,supervis
ion and control Of the board of admin
istration only insofar as such powers
and duties were by law subject to the
supervision and control Of any or all
of the boards mentioned in section j
of this act is pure camouflage. .
Punitive Measure.
This bill is not league measure
it is not drawn according to the gov
ernor's message. It is punitive
measure, purely, an attempt to undo
in part what was done at the last
election. Would the former state su-
perintendent consent to become an
underling such as this bill would make
him were he nov in Officer
Insufficient bonds.
Senator Mees particularly objected
to Section 2, relative to bonding, 1--WE
now have five members on the board
of education, each bonded for $4,000,
and three members Of the board Of
control, each of whom is required to
give a $4,000 bond. Section Of
this act requires but $4,000 bonds
from each OF the five members OF this
commission, which would be $4,000,
or $4,000 short of the security now
given the state. ] do not believe this
security should be reduced. The board
Of control last year handled more
than $1,5O0,O00 in actual money, and
the state and it's taxpayers are en-
titled to this protection"
Too Much Power.
Senator Cahill, rising again to the
defense of the bill, declared it did
not interfere with the present super
intendent. Had Macdonald been re-
elected superintendent, he would not
have been made a member Of this
BOARD, said Cahill, but,;~he declared,
there was so much clamor that Miss
Nelson was being put out of business
that she was put on She Is lett
about the same powers she now has, ;,
explained the man from Grant.
He insisted that Macdonald had en-
joyed too much power; that he had
revolutionized blanks and forms and
reports and books and stationery, and
he was afraid that II left alone Miss
Nelson would do a little revolution.
izing on her own hook. He criticized
the present text books, installed un
der the Macdonald regime, which he
declared educated the boys and girls
away from the farms and into the ci-
ties. He thought boys and girls on
the farm, should be taught how to
dock and grade grain and figure but
ter-fat percentages In cream and to
know how many blades wheat plant
shot up, and matters like that.
Senator Church admitted the bill
was not league measure, but Insist
ed 1t had been "agltated by leading
educators" .-. * ~,
~ Jacobsen'tr Talks.
Senator Jacobsen Of Mott made one
Of the best speeches heard during the
present session in defense Of the COM
mon school system of the state. He
declared there was not another state
in the union where three boards had
been combined under such plan; he
objected to the presence of the com,
missioner Of agriculture and labor on
this board declaring tnat II he. prop
erly attended to his own duties as
head OF the agricultural department,
and member of the industrial com
,p,'c set ha n,.oIit Am, ,sccs n
and the wOrkmen's compensation COM
mission he would have no time left to
give to the work Of the administration
board
He told how the common schools of
Iowa in his youth had been dominated
by. the higher institutions of learning
and how he had been handicapped in
his younger days because he had no
certificate from one of these institu-
tions. He declared that all his life,
because of the hold which the higher
institutions of learning have, he has
had to battle against discrimination
because he is not college graduate.
'"These higher institutions have a
rope around the neck of our common
schools now,"' said the gentleman from
Hettinger, "and this bill proposes to
tie these bonds tighter When the
foe was turned back at Chateau
Thierry and the greatest blow in all
history struck for democracy, ninety
per cent of those brave American boys
who fought there had never received
more than common school educa.
-tion. When those boys come home
they will have something to tell you
Of the military snobs; of how they
were kept down because they were not
West Pointers. Let us not handicap
our public schools by fastening the
higher institutions upon them Let US
give our common schools, the only
schools that 80 per cent of our peo.
pie will ever know, an opportunity to
work out their own destiny No mat
ter what our political differences may
be. We should stand together where
the welfare of our boys and girls is
concerned"