The Lamar register., 1922-03-15
81 PER CENT OF TAXES
State Tax Commission Shows That
Majority of All Taxes Goes
To Education.

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commission shows that of the enor-
nous total of nearly fifty millions of
taxes collected in Colorado over half
or to be exact-fifty-one per cent goes
to education. There can therefore be
no big reduction in taxes that does
not affect the school system. The
average man in this state represent
ing family of five pays $3.50 in taxes
and $127.50 of this goes to education,
but does this educate his family? The
chances are that if he has three in
the public schools at once, he will pay
much more than that amount addi-
tional in cost of books, supplies, and
demands for all kinds of gifts, class
parties, entertainments, lectures, etc,
etc, ETC., ad infinitum. If it is neces-
sary and worth the cost then he should
burden-but is it? That is the big
question.
The following article taken from the
La Junta Tribune is very much 20 the
point and refers to the whole valley
as well as La Junta:
1.-THE high cost of taxation is calling
forth meetings of indignant taxpayers
all over the state, and ways and means
of reducing the taxes are being seri-
ously considered. Otero county is not
alone, but other counties are having
the same kind of trouble. Reduction
in taxes must come from the people
themselves, and a start must be made
somewhere.
''The chief cause of high taxes is the
high cost of what we are pleased to
call education, and if the present day
course given in the public schools is
worth the price it costs we can not
cut down any there. If it is not worth
the price, It is a detriment, and re-
medal measures should be taken.
"The test of education is what it
produces, not what it knows by heart
says Arthur Brisbane. Measured by
this test, is our modern system of edu-
cation fulfilling its mission? What is
our modern system of education pro-
ducing? Does it produce respect for
authority? Not when bunch of high
school boys tank up on moonshine
whiskey, attend basket ball game in
another town, and disgrace their own
they are in, by their behavior, and
then are allowed to remain in school
as students, regardless of the moral
effect it may have on other students.
If the offenders were expelled for the
remainder of the term, a respect for
discipline might be engendered; but if
the matter is lightly passed over, re-
spect for authority is lost, especially if
one Of the offenders is allowed to re-
tain the honored position of president
of his class.
docs our system OF education pro-
duce modesty? Young ladies are sent
out to play basketball games before an
audience of 400 or 500 people, dressed
in abbreviated knickerwhackers, and
in the intervals of rest, lie all spraddl-
ed out on the floor in all sorts of poses
and postures. This exhibition excites
unholy thoughts in the minds of some
of the male spectators and provokes
ribald and altogether disrespectful re-
marks.
"Does our system of education pro-
duce men and women who know the
difference between things worth while
and those that are not? Such stress is
laid on a basket ball championship
that the players really think the win
ming of pennant amounts to some
thing, and the struggle becomes SO
animated that refined and cultivated
young lady pokes another lady on the
opposing team on the nose with her
fist, renders her unconscious for ten
minutes, and causes her to lose
quart of blood. Winning a pennant
may be something worth striving for
to some extent, but is it an essential
thing in life?
"Does our system of education pro-
duce economical men and women, who
know what money is worth and what
it should be spent for? Boys and girls