Charlevoix county herald. (East Jordan, Mich.) 189?-1953, 1920-04-16


study of the conditions today regarding
our schools.
ANATIONAL EMERGENCY IN
EDUCATION
A recent report of the National Edu-
cation Association reveals startling con-
ditions which are certain to become
worse unless the public is aroused to
the need for more liberal financial sup
port OF public education. There are
more than five million persons in the
United States over ten years OF age who
can neither read nor write. About
four million children are taught by
teachers less than twenty-one years of
age with little or no high school educa-
ton, with no professional preparation
for their work, and who are in great
majority OF cases products of the same
schools in which they teach. The aver
age number of years OF two hundred
days each attendance III public schools
for each individual, as indicated by the
school statistics for 1916, was only 5.96,
or less than the completion of the sixth
grade, for a average education for the
citizens of the greatest democracy in
the world.
The total high school enrolment for
1916 was only st per cent. of the ele-
mentary schools. Under ideal condi-
tions enrolment in the high school
should be so per cent. of the elemen-
tary schools, and yet OF the men under
so years of age who are prominent
enough to have their names listed in
the "Whos Who" in America, scarcely
any have not had at least an high school
education.
SCARCITY OF TEACHERS
The shortage of teachers throughout
the United States now totals one-hund-
red thousand. The normal schools
throughout the United States this year
have in their graduating classes only
AZ per cent. of the average annual num-
ber of graduates during the past ten
years. This means that the teacher
shortage for the coming year will be
still greater than during the past year.
TEACHERS SALARIES
Teachers salaries have not kept pace
with the high cost of living, nor with
the wages possible to earn in other
fields of labor; consequently many
teachers have left the profession and
sofo oh xuArlI rs l.; Je
because they could make more money.
Frequently the best teachers are the
ones who have left the profession be.
cause they have been able to command
exceptional salaries elsewhere. Since
the biggest factor in good schools is
teachers, it follows that the future con.
dition of schools everywhere may be-
come very serious.
WHY GOOD SCHOOLS ARE NEEDED
The great difference between the
United States and practically all of the
other countries in the world lies in the
system of free public education. A re
public such as ours can not exist unles.
people are educated. 1t is largely be
cause of ignorance that radicalism ane
spurious political doctrines make suci
headway. In America reforms can b,
brought about by the use of the ballo
not by revolution, yet today there ar,
many people in America who are to,
ignorant to know this. The schools
constitute defense against destruction
OF property, againstlawlessness, agains
revolution and against anarchy. If tn,
schools fall down in their attempt I,
train every boy and girl to be goo'
citizen, ignorance may cause the des
truction of property worth many time
what it will cost to build and maintain
the very best of schools. The crisis i
at hand; schools cost money. That
because they are SO valuable they there
fore will be cheap. The probabilitie
are that in the future il will cost NOR
than ever. 1t is for this very reaso
that they should be encouraged an
aided in every possible way. Bette
schools mean better, wiser, happier
more thrifty and progressive country
SCHOOLS AND TAXES
Unless the assessed valuation {
property rises as the cost of maintain
ing the schools rises then the tax-rat
must increase. Under present cond
tions some schools district in Michiga
have tax rate five times as high 9
other district in Michigan. II is to tn
interest of the entire state to hav
everybody educated and it is therefor
to the interest of the entire state
have the rate Of school taxes so adjus
ed as to make the entire rate in on
locality about the same as it is in al