The Brattleboro daily reformer. (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1913-1955, 1921-02-19
SATURDAY. FEBRUARY 10. 1921.
THE EDUCATION BILLS.

! The relative merits of the two educa-
tional bills now before the legislature
that providing for the establishment of
Il teachers college at Burlington and the
so-callcd Stearns bill to retain the nor
! NAL schools at Castleton and Johnson
are clearly set forth in the current is
sue of the Randolph Herald and News,
whose editor, Luther Il. Johnson, is
chairman of the state board of educa-
ton. The acute and urgent problem con-
nected with the furnishing of qualified
teachers in Vermont. Mr.. Johnson truth
fully says, relates to the supply of such
teachers for the rural schools. While
teachers for the secondary, or high.
schools located in cities and towns is not
overabundant, yet it is always possible
to secure them. This has not been the
! fact, however. in the case of teachers for
the rural sections, and it is therefore
with view Of determining which of the
, proposed bills promises most in that di-
/ rcction that legislators should compare
the rival measures.
From H.. following comparative anal
ISIS The Reformer believes the state
/ board bill offers the greater promise OF
relief in the rural teacher stringency
and for that reason it hopes the legisla
| ture will adopt it in preference to the
Stearns bill:
If this need is more and better rural
school teachers. the board plan continues
the present teacher training courses in
high schools and Seminaries with definite
E..I.
courses arc even now turning out nearly
enough new teachers to make good the
number of those who drop out of rural
school work year by year If certain
changes in their location could be made
as contemplated in the board bill, 80 as
to place courses in parts of the state not
now we'll served, there would be under
teachers within year or two to answer
all calls for the rural schools. 1t is ex-
pected that a certain number of grad
yates from the twO-year or normal
course of the teachers college, attracted
by the state and town pay offered them,
would also enter the rural schools-at
least as many as would go into that
work from the tWO-year course of the
normal schools if they were restored
but the major portion as heretofore
would come from the high schools. or as
the bill designates them, the extension
courses.
The boards plan does not lead these
training course girls up blind alley"
| 1t gives them two opportunities for i'm
| provement and Advancement first by at
| tendance at the free summer school to
| be conducted at the college. and second
| by taking a finishing year there. Either
| gives professional advantage, higher GER
| tltlcatlon rank and more state pay if
| the teacher goes into rural school work.
! The finishing year is not obligatory, and
| no rural teacher will be forced to at
| tend the college in order to continue in
her line of work. There can thus be no
| basis for the claim that rural school
| teachers will be educated away from
| their environment under the boards
plan.
Turning TO the Stearns plan. we find
a definite scheme of curtailing the train
| ing courses. First, only those that
maintain an enrolment of at least ten
students can be conducted. This will not
| only reduce the number of prospective
rural teachers by fully one-third on a
| basis of this years registration. but will
| cut off the teacher training supplies of
several entire countries where this min
lmUm number has not quite been
reached. 1t is better to leave the cstab-
| liShment and maintenance of these
courses in the hands of a board vested
with power of discretion than to fix an
arbitrary minimum of enrolment by
statute. StlH 1urtner, the StearnS bill
REQUIRES that only graduates from the
full four-year course of an approved
high school shall be admitted to these
courses. Desirable as this step is ulti-
mately. it should not be taken until
there is assurance of sufficient teachers
for rural schools. The effect of this re-
strictiOn would be to reduce the enroll
ment per course so as to bring it below
tine fxei rSH5zlrrpfRgip7 PrgbahlSz7 every
case thereby extingaishihg The Courses