The log cabin Democrat., 1921-05-11
COMMITTEES WORK
 OUT A NEW PLAN SEEMS ONLY ALTERNATIVE School Must be Closed or Radically
 Curtailed Without Substantial Fi- nancial Assistance.

A system of sales and luxury taxes was unanimously decided upon yester- day afternoon at meeting of the Con- way school board with committees of the Commercial Club and Rotary Club to be proposed as solution of the financial problems of the Conway pub lie schools, which have reached stage where radical curtailment or com- plete cessation of the school will be necessary unless outside assistance of a substantial character is forthcom- ing.
 The decision of the board and joint committees was not reached until af- ter every other possible outside plan of relief or procedure had been care fully considered. As was stated in the Log Cabin Democrat last week the dis trict, if the school is continued upon it's present basis and without provid- ing for any expansion or enlargement, will incur next year deficit of ap- proximately SS,000; in other words, its operating expenses and bond and interest payments will exceed it's rev. enue by at least that sum.
 The three banks of Conway, which will at. the end of the present school year have in their possession unpaid warrants of the district aggrega- ting S53,000, have served positive mo- tice upon the board of directors that they will not continue to accept the districts warrants unless some means are found not only to make the rev. enue meet the outlay for the next ses- sion of school but also to make a sub- ing indebtedness.
 All of the revenue coming to the district from taxes this summer will be taken up by the banks, which have registered their warrants, and the funds of the district in the treasury when the time come to open the next session will be minus about S25,0OO. Several different plans have been under consideration by the board and committees which have been making
 
 during the past few weeks. One sug- gestion was the abolition of the high sc1ool and curtailment of expendi- lures to a point where the revenue would maintain the school. It was estimated that by taking drastic steps of this character approximately $8,- 900 per year could be saved Such step, however, it was unanimously agreed, should not be taken except as a last resort. The unfavorable ad- vertising that Conway, which boasts of being the educational center of Arkansas, would receive when it be- came known over the state that she was unable to maintain anything more than a crippled primary and grammar school, would, it is believed, be many times more expensive to the community than the cost of maintain ing the school upon at least it's pres ent basis of efficiency. The discon- tinuance of the high school, it is urged, would mean an abrupt stop in |the growth of Conway and would give the city a setback from which
 it could not recover for years The hopeless feature of such "a move is that it would have to be practically permanent, as the saving would be so comparatively small as to allow little If any surplus annually to be ap- piled to the districts floating debt. Even if S2,000 year could be saved and paid on this debt it would require about quarter of century to ex- tinguish it, on the basis of the pres- ent revenue. But the most serious objection to this plan, of course, is in the fact that it would throw out of school over 200 bright boys and girls, of whom Superintendent Wom- ack estimates not less than 75 per cent would be unable to meet the ex pense of attending academies or col leges. Three-fourths of the high school enrolment, he declares, have no hope of any higher education than the high school can provide and to rob them of this opportunity would, in the opinion of most of those who are studying the problem, would be noth-