The Farmington times. (Farmington, St. Francois County, Mo.) 1905-1926, 1920-01-16
COUNTY SCHOOL NOTES

Terre schools has the following to
say regarding the new Compulsory
Attendance Law:
"The new Compulsory Attendance
Law has been a great benefit to the
schools of Bonnie Terre. Many chill
dren have been in school this year who
have not attended before. One twelve
year old girl has been forced in who
had never been in school. Pupils who
have been irregular. in attendance in
previous years are now attending
regularly.
"The enforcement of this law has
been in the hands of local attend
ance officer who has been ably sup
ported by the County Attendance Of
ficer, Judge r. C. Tucker. Before this
our local attendance officers have not
been able to get results because of the
lack of support Of higher power. If
it were possible to estimate the value
of Judge fuckers service in dollars,
] would say that his service to Bonnie
rerre alone is worth more than he has
received for his service to the whole
county"
The third section of the State Su-
perintendent's recent letter is as fol-
lows:
"The State Aid laws should be and
must be amended. There should be
also special constitutional levy
say of 10c--to be used by the State in
supplementing the salaries of teach
ers when the district can not reach
the minimum salaries fixed by law.
Perhaps this special tax could also be
used to help out some of the special
aids now given to the schools. We
must have this constitutional levy or
we must quit taking from the one
third set aside by the General Assem-
bly, for school purposes, these various
state aid funds.
"The 50th General Assembly appro-
priated one-third of the ordinary re-
ceipts for school purposes. This
amounted to $2,946,538.86. This
amount, less disbursements, left bal
ance on June 80, 1919, of $685.
821.99, but out of this fund there was
appropriated by the General Assem-
bly, S3OO,O0O.00 for rural high schools
100000 for Teacher Training high
schools, $4,000 for Teacher-Train-
ing the city high schools, and $685.
900 for vocational training. All OF
these appropriations Of course, are
for the biennial period. In addition tc
these appropriations, the State Su-
perintendent was compelled, under the
| law, to set aside S194,013 for aid tC
rural schools, and about $4,000 fol
aid to the special schools for defec-
tives. These two reservations are for
only one year, and the same things
must be done before August 18th, OF
next year. After all deductions were
made, the total amount for appor-
tionment this past year was S2,312,-
1850. That is, the total teacher
quota was $1,152,45 the total at.
tendance quota was S1,160,2S5. From
these figures it will be seen that while
one-t third of the total revenue might
be considered a generous appropria'
ton, yet the amount appropriated
from this fund for special purposes is
a sufficient sum to make quite diff.
ference in the amount actually appor.
toned to the counties on the basi.
originally intended by the constitu
ton.
at seems from the figures shown il
this report regarding the rate Of tax
alton for school purposes in the va
rious districts, that some legislation i!
needed to compel school districts tt
raise more money for their teachers
1t has been suggested in some quar-
tiers that no district should receive
State funds unless that district hat
voted the limit in each case for schoo
purposes. There should be a mini
mum wage law enaced. This law, o
course, should establish scale o
salaries based on training, experience
and efficiency. No teacher in tn
State should receive less than 81
: per month in the elementary schools
nor less than 500 per month in tn
high schools. / believe the people o
the State are ready to pay teacher
for efficient service. With the prop
err distribution of the funds of tn
State already provided, the adoption
of the constitutional amendment per
hitting the rural districts to levy 81
the larger school units and the spe
cial tax to take care of the specia
: aids and supplement salaries of tn
teachers, there should be no diff
Guilty in paying teachers salaries com
: mensurate with the services they ar
rendering. There should be no limi
} to what should be paid the efficien
teacher; the limit is reached with tn
inefficient teacher before the salar
begins" -
J. CLYDE AKERS,
Co. Supt. of Schools.