Evening public ledger. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1914-1942, 1919-04-16
THE BOARD OF EDUCATION
DOESN'T OWN THE SCHOOLS
II Must Respect the Demands OF the
People, Whose Servant It Is, and
Cooperate In a Survey

WHY all this fuss about a school sur
" vey? Doesn't the Board of Public
Education know all about the merits and
defects in the system and wouldn't it
correct the defects if it had the money?
What is the use of spending from
twenty-five to forty thousand dollars to
flnd out what we already know?
These and similar questions are pass
ing through the minds of many citizens
just now. In certain quarters there is
disposition to regard the agitation for
a survey as the pernicious activity of a
lot of faddists with nothing better to do
than to meddle with things about which
they know little or nothing.
The Board of Public Education itself
has seemed to regard survey as un-
| necessary and to involve waste Of
money which might better be spent for
some other purpose.
There is no escaping this conclusion.
for year ago the board appointed
committee, with former Judge Dinner
Beeber as chairman, to inquire into the
advisability of survey. This committee
has made no report and, so far as is
known, the other members of the board
have not urged it to do anything. 1t is
definitely known that certain influential
members of the board have said in public
that no survey could disclose anything
which is not known already.
A few men and women inclined to be-
lieve that those in authority know all
that is to be known about their business
are reading with impatience the criti-
cisms of the board for its inaction and
| Indifference in this matter. They say
| that the successful men in charge of the
administration of the school affairs can
| be trusted to look after them without
any advice from outsiders.
But the congress of presidents of bust
ness and civic organizations does not
take this view. 1t has called upon the
board to borrow school funds up to
100000 in anticipation of the tax levy
in order that a survey may be begun at
the earliest possible date.
There must be something in the plan
worth considering if the hard headed
business men not on the Board of Public
Education think it worth while to borrow
such sum in order that survey may
be made. This in itself is partial ex-
planation of the fuss about the matter
There is more complete explanation,
however.
The school accommodations are made
quate. The rate of pay to the teachers
is lower than in other cities of the same
class. The standards of instruction are
below those in the best schools in the
country. Children have to remain in
school more years than in other cities to
receive the same amount of education.
The division of authority between the
Board of Public Education and the super
ntendent of public instruction is not
clearly defined. And there are many
other defects of which we know in a gen.
eral way.
Some of these can be removed by an
increase in the school budget through
an increase in the tax rate. Others can
be removed by a revision of the system
of organization. But there is not any
one man or any dozen men who can tell
in detail today just what ought to be
done.
This can be discovered only by a COM
prehensive survey of the whole system.
Now, a survey is a careful and thor
ough examination of the business and
teaching methods of the school system
and comparison of those methods with
the methods in other cities. Surveys
have been made in one hundred and sixty
cities within the last few years. They
provide basis for comparison. There
are standards which have been ascer-
tanned by a study of educational proc
esses by which the quality of the work
done here may be measured.
We want as good schools as the money
at hand can buy. In fact, we want as
good schools as there are in the county.
We do not know now how to get them.
The mere appropriation of more money
will not give them to US. A survey will
show us what is lacking and 1t will point
the way to getting it.
For example, who can tell whether the
children in the fifth grade know as much
about arithmetic and reading and gram
mar and spelling as the children in the
fifth grade in the Boston or the Cleve-
land or the st. Louis schools? Perhaps
there may be few school experts here
who know, but the men who pay the
taxes do not know. lf'it should be shown
to them that because of defective educa-
tional methods, or by the incapacity Of
certain teachers, the children have to be
kent in school year or two years longer
than they should be kept in order to
reach a certain stage in their education,
the cost of this in dollars and cents can
also be shown and the way to economies
can be pointed out.
This is only one thing that survey
would show.
1t would also disclose the relation of
the superintendent of schools to the ap-
pointmept of principals and the extent
of interference in that purely educa-
tional function by the business admins
trative branch of the educational sys-
tenn. 1t would disclose the comparative
cost of textbooks and other supplies with