The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1920-03-10
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Abbeville County was the home OF
the famous Waddell School. The ole
school at Hopewell was one of the
things of which we have always
boasted. Erskine College has been an
institution of the county for more
than seventy-five years. Then there
is the Woman's College at Due West
And there was the Cokesbury Con-
ference School, and the other schools
at old Cokesbury, all Of which were a
credit in their dayto the county. We
have boasted of our intellectual
superiority, and Abbeville has some
times been called the Athens of the
state.
But what shall we say of ourselves
now that we are ranked fortieth
among the forty-siX counties of the
state in educational matters? Only
five other counties in the state are
doing less than we are for the educa-
tion of the boys and girls who are
coming on. Does it not look like we
have been asleep in recent years IN
matters wherein the fathers were
most alive?
1t is a regretable fact that the
people in Abbeville County have in
recent years not kept track with 9TH
er counties in the matter of good
schools. When you ride through And
erson County and see the many
modern school houses built in that
county in recent years, and through
other counties and see the same
thing, and then come back and take
a look at the one-room houses in this
county, in which teachers do their
work, scarcely better than the school
buildings of thirty years ago, you can
but feel ashamed of Abbeville Coun-
ty. With the exception of Campbell
school district and the Antreville
school district, where spirit of pro-
gress has made itself evident, there
is not rural community in Able
vile County that is within twenty
five years of the front ranks of
rural school communities.
And we cannot say that we have
not the money. Abbeville County is
small and much of it's property is
assessed at ridiculously low figures,
but with all that we are not among
the poor counties of the state. We
are behind because in practically
every school district in many coun-
ties there are special school taxes
running all the way from 4 to l6
mills for the support of the schools.
Only day or two ago we were
looking over list of school districts
in Spartanburg County which levy
special school taxes, and from the
Long list contained in the Spartan
burg Journal we would imagine that
practically every school district in
the county was collecting special
tax for schools. In Abbeville Coun-
ty the past year the city school dis
trict was the only district which
levied as much as 8 mills special
taxes for schools.
We are not only losing the bene-
fits which would come to us in hav-
ing better schools by refusing to
levy special taxes, but we are rob-
blng ourselves as well. The General
Assembly has provided a fund for
the additional support of school dis
trlcts in every county which districts
levy as much as s mills for their own
support. We do not like this wav of
supporting schools. We would prefer
law which compelled every district
to levy mills for the support of its
own schools, but we should make the
best possible out of what we have
We are paying our full pro rata part
OF the amount of the appropriation
but as matters stand we are gettino
practically no return for the amount
we contribute towards it. We shor,l
look after our own interest b. pr..
ting ourselves in position to roam
some of the benefits coming from
this source,
The Abbeville School district N :,
few days will vote an increased lew