The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1920-09-10

TO The Free PreSs: ! am herewith
|sending you some articles on school
consolidation taken from The Far
mer, and written by the people who
know conditions as they actually ex-
ist l sincerely hope the voters OF
district Nos 16-17-21 and %, Blue
Earth county, Mimi, will give these
articles due consideration before they
go to vote on consolidation at Garden
City September 8. Yours respectful
ly, f. M. Washburn:
$40 The Farmer: In your issue OF
January 81. in an article ON transpor-
tation of children to consolidated
schools, p. ]. Slettedahl says, Those
who oppose consolidation are Obliged
to muster all the objections against
II, and then misrepresent facts, In or
der to anywhere near justify their DO
sft1on," and he proceeds to answer
such objections. Your illustration
calls attention to two consolidated
schools In Iowa as examples.
l live In Iowa and am well acauaint-
cd with transportation conditions
and would ask Mr.. Slettedahl to kind
ly answer those questions which he
has tried to answer without his mus
tering all favors and then misrepre-
senting facts. We have had the task
or opposing this consolidation propo-
sitton in this township, and defeated
1t three to one. We listened to con-
solidation advocates, and heard them
representing one thing after an
other, even the law In regard to
transportation, saying he vans had to
drive to every residence In the con-
soudated district. II ! am not mis-
taken, no school law says they must
DO 30. This was one Of the many
facts misrepresented.
Now Mr.. Slettedahl states that ''in
q district maintaining q one teacher
school, there are number Of children
who must walk as much as two miles
bin all kinds OF, weather, and frequent
ly over the worst of roads and paths. u
Two miles was my distance to go to
school, and / now Live one and one
quarter miles from our school: SO you
see / am not opposing consolidation
because ! have q school at my door
or eyer did have.
leading-H not to misrepresent facts
-as. when the weather and roads are
30 terrible as he tells about, 1t is
much easier to drive from a quarter
to two miles with light rig to take
our children to our rural school, than
It is to drive over those same terrible
roads In this terrible weather five to
ten miles with the heavy loaded van
When the roads and weather are sc
bad as he speaks OF, we are not gen
orally working In the fields, and have
plenty Of time and the means of talk
ing our children to and from school
when it Is at all possible; and we car
go when the vans cannot.
would kindly ask Mr.. Slettedahl
whether 1t would be better have
our children walk, or have us take
them, a distance Of from across the
road to two miles, to q nice warm
school building where we know they
Will be or the day. safe, dry and warm
or to walk over this road or path in
all kinds Of weather. wait in the shell
ter he says the parents should build
then get into the van, "tired, cold and
wet" as he says, ride in this van
which understand Is seldom enclosed
or heated. and ride perhaps eight OF
ten miles? OF course we could take
them TO met the van, but would be
compelled to wait until il arrived be-
cause we wouldn't know whether OF
not 1t would go in this bad weather
and roads.
Mr.. Slettedahl says this is a small
part Of the children, but those few he
speaks of have just as much right to
reasonable educational privileges az
the many, and the consolidated school
perhaps robs them of a school that
they have at their door at the present
time. ask him why, when this mat
ter of consolidation comes up, the
first place one Of these schools is
built Is in some town, city or village
as we see them In most cases? Why
not centralize those schools, and let
the boys and girls of the town or VII :
lage have the pleasure Of riding out
In those fresh air vans? It is a real
nice thing to have a nice school build
ing In the town or village. right at the