The Ely miner., 1920-12-10
BUSY PROGRAM
MAPPED OUT.
CONFERENCES OF LEGISLATORS
PRODUCES MUCH-SCHOOL
SYSTEM A TARGET.
REPRESENTATIVE HITCHCOCK
THINKS PROPOSED SCHOOL
LAWS A MENACE.
(By r. w. Hitchcock of Hibbing.)

The past week in st. Paul has been
field week for legislative conference
The first of these was regional
conference" called by and presided
over by U. S. Commissioner of Educa-
tion Claxton. This conference en-
braced the states of Wisconsin, Iowa;
Minnesota and the two DakOtas
and was purely for the purpose of
discussing education from the stand
point OF legislative needs. Other
legislative conferences held during
the week have been: The special
senate committee to devise bank
guaranty law; joint meeting of the
senate and house special committees
on state insurance for workmen's
compensation; the first meeting of the
special house committee to study
marketing conditions and to suggest
laws that will provide for cooperative
farm marketing of farm products and
,,herwise give the farmers of Minne-
sofa relief from present marketing
conditions; and meeting of the Min
nesota State Equity Union to suggest
farm legislation. Last, and perhaps
not least, the first secret caucus of
the Nonpartisan League members of
the house and senate for the ap-
preaching session.
Two Important Ones.
The. conference destined to have
the most far reaching effect on the
state were perhaps the educational
conference and the marketing COM
mittee meeting.
Educational bills will bulk large in
the approaching session. When the
last legislature created the State
Board of Education it started some
thing; it started a complete reorgani-
zation of Minnesota's public school
system. The preliminary steps will
be taken by the legislature at the ap-
preaching session. When the State
Board of Education was created two
years ago, the law WHICH created it
provided that the Board should make
an exhaustive study of state aid to
schools and of other features of the
state public school system and report
its findings and recommendations to
the legislature in. 1921. The State
Board of Education has done just
that; its report just issued provides
for sweeping changes. Two of the
most noteworthy of these proposed
changes are the recommendations for
two mill school tax to take the place
of the present biennial appropriations
for state aid to schools and (even
more fundamental and far reaching)
the plan of establishing larger tax
units for the. support of the schools.
These recommendations have not at
tracted widespread attention as yet,
but eventually they will stir the state
as nothing else will, for if they are
carried into effect by adequate stat
utes, they will change the face of
Minnesota's welfare far more radio
ally than will tonnage tax, co-operat-
i've marketing or good roads. Watch
out for the states educational pro-
gram; it's got dynamite in it. .
In this connection it is interesting
to note that the regional conference
on education of the past week en-
phatically advocated these significant
changes: New scources of revenue
for education, such as tax on final
sales; establishing of larger tax units;
increased school aid from state and
nation; recognition of the fact that
rural education is the most vital and
the most difficult of all forms of edu-