Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1921-02-11
INCREASING Taxes
BEGET SCHOOL CODES
VIRGINIA AND CALIFORNIA EX-
HAUSTINELY STUDY EDC-
CATIONAL PROBLEM
REACH SAME SOLUTION
Washington Commission Produces
Recommendations of Best
American Thought
BY A. S. BURROWS.

States other than Washington,
threatened with educational bank
ruptcy because of unusual conditions
growing out of the war. are today
facing a general 'shakeup" so far
as their public school systems are
concerned. Increasing taxes, with
results that to the average educator
and business man scarcely seem to
justify the expense. have brought
forth a popular demand for expert
investigation of governmental ex-
penditures to the end that waste may
be eliminated and certain economics
effected.
| COMMISSIONS, similar to the pres
ent administrative school code COM
mission of Washington. have re-
Gently completed exhaustive studies
OF the educational systems of Vir-
ginia and of California. 1t is of
especial significance at this time. the
commission believes, that these sew
eral commissions working independ-
emily of each other, should have
found faults common to all of the
school systems examined and should
have arrived at solutions almost
identical. The Washington commits
sion submits the findings Of the Vir-
ginia and the California commits
sions as evidence that the demand
for more effective school administra-
ton is general in the United States
and that the Washington commits
sion has brought forth recommends
tions in keeping with the best edu-
cational thought Of America.
Virginia Recommendations.
Briefly stated. the recommends
tions Of the Virginia commission are
as follows:
1. Provision for a state board of
education to be appointed by the
governor.
2. Provision that the state SUPER
intendent Of public instruction be
Appointed by the state board Of edu-
cation, and that his selection be
made without regard to place of
residence.
3. Provision that the county,
city or town, rather than the dis
trict, be the unit of administrat ton.
and that the school affairs of such
unit be under the general control of
a school board to be elected by the
qualified voters thereof, and that
the present trustee electoral board.
district school board and county
school board be abolished.
4. To provide for a wise and just
manner of distributing the state
school funds.
The California report, just off the
press. recommends, as does the
Washington report, reorganization
of the state department of education,
the county unit plan of administra-
ton and better equalization in the
distribution of school funds. Re-
garding the operation Of the present
state department of education in
California. where the state superin-
tendent is elected as in Washington,
the commissions report says:
Ehe present administrative Or
ganization should be unified by the
abolition of the elected Office of state
superintendent of public instruction,
which will require a constitutional
amendment, and the substitution
therefor of an appointed commits
siOner Of education. to be appointed
by and responsible to the state board
Of education. The present educa-
tional organization of California is
haphazard and should be unified UNI
der a state department of education.
with such divisions as the legisla-
ture may from time to time create"
County Logical Unit.
Furthermore, the California COM
mission declares that the county is
the logical unit for school admins
tration: that the consolidation of
schools is a good idea. but is slow
and the units formed are too small
to be really effective; and that the
county boards should not be com
posed of professional educators. In
asking for the abolition of the dis
trict system, the California commits
sion's report says:
Experience everywhere has
clearly demonstrated that the dis
trict system is expensive, inefficient,
shortsighted and unprogressive:
that it leads to an unnecessary null
ltiplication of small and inefficient
schools that are utterly unable to
minister to the larger rural-life
needs of the present: that under it
country boys and girls do not have
equivalent advantages with the boys
and girls who live in the cities: that
1t stands today as the most serious
obstacle in the way of needed con-
solidation and Improvement of our
rural schools
Calling attention to the oppor-
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property at Rochester from Allen