The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1920-11-13
WANT CONTROL OF
APPROPRIATIONS
New England School superintendent
Say School Committees Should Have
Power-Dempsey Speaks.

BOSTON. Nov. 13.-Resolutions were
,dopted at a meeting of the New Eng
and Association of superintendent, fol
lowing the regular session of the joint
educational convention at the state house
Yesterday. declaring it to be the belief OF
| the superintendents that school commit
| tees should have the final authority to
| fix and control appropriations or assess
ments and expenditures for all school
purposes. wherever such assessments or
| appropriations are not fixed by the dl-
rect vote of the people The action was
| taken after discussion of the relations
| between school and other municipal adj
ministration in which several delegates
| took part III addition to the speakers an
| nGunced on the program.
| Clarence FL. Dempsey, recently ap-
! pointed commissioner of education for
/ Vermont. asked for cooperation between
school authorities and the other munic-
/ ipal departments. He added that school
| leaders should realize that they are part
and not the whole of the general machin-
cry for civic betterment. Trouble in the
past, he believed, had resulted largely
Ifrom jealousy OF prerogatlyes, pursuit or
lpolitical or personal Experimental ends IN
place of seeking the good of the entire
community, and lack of personal contact
between school heads and heads of other
departments He declared that school
boards and superintendent should well
come criticism of their work, for, he said.
! I'VE cannot expect cooperation unless we
have an effective school system"
i Consideration of the problem of financ-
ing public education, with particular EN-
phasiS on the scheme of state subsidies,
was presented by Ernest W. Butterfield,
commissioner of education for New
Hampshilp He offered three possible
methods of state aid which he described
as substituting a particular feature, sub
sidizing the comparative efforts put forth
by the communities of the state. and sub
sidizing the schools in general. Though
each Of the three plans has its defects, he
believed that the last plan would be the
most satisfactory in the long run, the chief
difficulty being that the rural towns might
lose their sense of responsibility for the
education of their children. This diff
Guilty. he thought. could be overcome by
constant cooperation between state and
local authorities and the people.
Telling of the need for state aid, he
said There was a time in New Eng
land when the towns possessed the chill
dren. the money and the leadership which
entitled them to conduct their schools
upon their own resources. but that time
has long passed The children are scat
tered over a wide area the money of the
farmer, instead of staying in the town,
has gone to the city to develop the city !:
and the leadership is of the absentee
sort. The evil of absentee leadership is
lust as great as the evil of absentee own
ership. With this changed condition. the
policy of leaving the town to tn own re-
, | sources is fatal to the welfare of the
child, who is the ward of the state. Con
sequently, the state must step in. for the
sake of all. and see that the child in
every city and town is assured of an equal
opportunity in securing certain fundamen.
! tails"
If money is given to the state. he de-
clared. enough should be spent so that
the education of all children in the state
could be approximately equal. But" he
said. the amount should also be regu-
lated so that all communities should have
to pay taxes as large as they can reason
ably bear"