The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1921-07-14
LETs ASK NO EXTENSION

KenOsha was opened on Saturday when Gov
ernor Blaine put his signature to the new vo-
cationa educational BILL That bill means
changing the lives of the boys and girls of Ke-
nosha 1t means giving a lot of them better
chance in life and it means the withdrawing
from the mills and the factories, for part time
at least, lot of little fellows who have sought
to assume the burdens Of workers" too early
in life This new law is going to go a long way
toward solving the question of the child work
er and it is going to solve it in the right way.
Instead of throwing open the way for the child
to go to work it is opening the way for the
child to 60 to school and provide the proper
foundation for life of work.
1t is going to mean to Kenosha vastly in
creased expenditures for school = possibly
twenty-five or fifty thousand dollars year
but it is going to mean for Kenosha vast i'm
provement in the educational opportunities Of
fered to boys and girls growing up in the city
Under the law Kenosha may extend the time
for full compliance with the law until Septem~
Der of 1928, provided the city wants to plead
poverty, but it is to be hoped that this is one
extension that Kenosha will not ask and that
even though an issue of bonds is necessary
the city will open the way to put this excel
lent law into operation on the opening day of
the school year in September, 1921. The
work of reorganization Of the schools will take
some time but the summer is only opened and
if the school officials go about it properly it
will make it easy to have the law in full effect
next September
The new law means that the boys and girls
in Kenosha must get something of an educa-
ton before they throw away the school books
on +ho +O ic t0
be no evasion of the law and boys and girls
must keep in school until they are fifteen years
of age. After that time they may arrange
to give half their time to school and half to
work but there will be no chance for cheating.
Truancy officers will see that the law is en-
forced and the people who employ workers will
find it very unprofitable to seek to evade the
provisions of the law. Until the boys and girls
are sixteen years of age they must give at
least half time to study and until they are eigh-
teen they must give at least eight hours week
ly to the improvement of their mental condi-
ton.
Kenosha has already had a chance to see
the value of the vocational school and with boys
and girls being required to give but a few hours
week to this work many of them have made
great progress and have found it possible to
greatly better their condition. The new law
is going to make the high school of Kenosha a
buster place than it ever was before Some of
the KenOsha boys and girls may resent the eff
forts of the state to thrust education upon
them but they will have no chance to defy the
law With the employing heads of the great
industries in full sympathy with the law there
will be but one door opening to these young
people and that is the door of opportunity =
the door to the school room.
Possibly no city in Wisconsin will be as wide
ly affected by the new law as Kenosha. With
its complex population Kenosha has offered
one of the most interesting and one of the most
serious educational problems to be found in the
state. This new law is offering wonderful
solution for this problem
The great peed is the proper cooperation of
the officials of the city with the officials of
the state in the enforcement of this law With
out this cooperation Kenosha can not hope to
get the full benefit of the educational move
ment. If necessary Kenosha must enlarge the
schools it has and build new schools Kenosha
has always led in the carrying out of the big
educational movements of the state and it>must
not be backward in bringing all of the bene-
fits of this new law to the Kenosha children.
1t may be that it will be necessary to use
makeshift quarters in order to give the chill
dren the chance offered them under the law
but this should not stop full compliance It's
the education that the state wants the chill
dren to have and they can get it in portable
buildings or in rented store rooms if the right
kind Of teachers are employed. The import
ant thing is to have the local school officials
in full sympathy with the law and give to
them determination to put it into effect inn
mediately We may be short of mcney butif