The evening herald. [volume] (Albuquerque, New Mexico) 1914-1922, 1921-02-09
THE REWARDS OF THE STRONG

TIIERE was a thcorNt who wrote an essay once entitled The Re"
wards 10 tn" Strong il" figured 1t out that tn" strong man
. the strong community, the strong state or nation, got all the r."
wards and all the appurtenanccS thereto, and that the strong should
therefore 60 ~ftty.fity with the weak.
This party had never lived under N" county unit school ty law
rs it operates IN New Mexico.
The theory of the county unit school tax Is q good theory Il
is that rich communities able TO pay for good school, and plenty Of
them. should pay Il part of the cost Of supplying good schools 10 com
munities that cannot support them - -
Albuquerque is a strong community. 1t is tin" largest city in
the state. 1t returns @sl5OoO0Oo Of the S2lOOo0oo as assessed val
ustion in Beualllo county 49,
49, Under the old system by which cacn school district paid It's own
school taxes and also paid it, own school bills, Albuquerque had
plenty Of money to run it's schools efficiently.
Under the county unit school tax Albuquerque has gone fifty
fifty with the county schools ON paying the bills.
The result last year was that Albuquerque, paying over three.
fourths of all the take, paid into all county school funds, was per
mittcd to spend 100000 Tor the city school maintenance, of which
$4,000 was for county high school costs; while the county, actually
paying less than oncfourh of all the taxes that reach the treasury,
spent $4,000 for county school maintenance.
II 100000 was enough to pay for running adequate schools for
the children of this city there would probably be no protest if the
county. the weak sister IN this case, took even more of the rewards
OF the strong -
1t happens that Albuquerque is growing very rapidly. The
school population is growing II is impossible to pad the Albuqucr.
que school census in order to get more money cut Of the state school
funds because We cannot get al. OF our children who want TO go to
school, into the school rooms available, and we have forty and fifty
and sixty children under q single teacher whose continued sanity
under the circumstances remains something To marvel at. There is
20 surprise at what happens TO the children.
Not only have We been forbidden to spend our own school tax
money for obtaining efficient schools here. hut We are now threatened
with legislation that would limit MS to an increase OF i've per cent a
year in total school outlay from taxation. There has not been a year
in the last six that Albuquerque school population has not increased
ten per cent Usually the increase has been more than ten per cent
Everyone, we believe. is in favor of helping weak school districts
obtain adequate schools The unit tax is a good theory and It's pr.
pose was most worthy Unfortunately one result of it has been 10
create cHrayogauce, that should not have occurred. Districts that
never had enough money before for schools have been flooded with
riches whose source they do not know and that cause, them No con
cern. There s money 90 Doe spent and they spend H. This is a
phase OF the situation tina, can bee corrected. 1t should be corrected