The Lynden tribune. [volume] (Lynden, Wash.) 1908-current, 1922-05-11
LYNDEN GAMER IN
3O-10 SCHOOL PLAN
District Would Pay To State So.
044 and Would Get Back S22,.
800; Petitions Out

mere lOuds. Oh itS pIcScul DdSl
of 451 pupils, Lynden would pa!
into the treasury at Olympia SO,
GA, and would get back $22,3O9
For every dollar paid in, dis
tricts adjoining Lynden would
get back the following amounts
Glendale, s1.73; Riverside s1.96;
Woodland, $2.47; Northwood
$165; Greenwood $1.51; Timor
$1.61; Harmony, $2.04; Merid
ian, $1.93.
Petitions supporting the 80.
10 plan will be circulated in the
Lynden district in the next few
days. Only registered voters may
sign them.
The following outline of the
plan and its purposes, was pre-
pared for The Tribune by Ralph
Swetman, who is conducting the
fight for the bill:
Educational Opportunity Unequal
Extreme inequalities are shown
by the survey in educational op-
portunities offered to the child
rem in different communities in
the state. Only six months of
school were held last year by 95
districts, and "a additional dis
tricts held but 61a months, ac-
cording to the survey. Expendi-
ture per pupil, which is doubtless
the best measure of educational
advantages afforded, ranged from
less than $4,000 to over 100000,
and in a few districts exceeded
100000. This wide range of ex-
penditure per child interpreted
in terms of school agencies means
of course, that while many child
rem have the advantage of all
that money can buy in a COM
plete and varied curriculum, in
teaching ability and service, in
school housing and equipment,
in special school service, such
as transportation, health service,
athletic and social privileges, ETC.,
many other children were denied
more than short year, with an
unframed and inexperienced or
unsuccessful teacher, in shack
of school house containing little
else than poor black boards and
mutilated desks.
A0A AhINuuhNNO1O
That the local levy in some
districts is forty times as much
as in some other districts, as
shown by the survey, indicates
the great disparity of burdens
imposed or assumed to meet
educational needs. At the light
err6 Of the load over 400 dis
tricts pay one mill or less in
local school tax, while at the
heavy end of the load are nearly
800 districts, paying a tax OF 20
mills or more. With a state aver
age of local levy of about IL
mills, $1,000 or nearly 80 per
cent of the children (and total
population) are in districts with
a tax of 20 mills or more. The
inequality and inequity of a
combination of heavy tax and
meager opportunity on the one
hand and a light tax and excep-
tional opportunities on the other
hand for the maintenance of the
standard school which the state
requires are shown strikingly
and repeatedly in the survey re-
port.
Variation i'm Local Resources
Causes both of unequal educa-
ton advantages and of tax bur-
dens are shown by the survey
in wide variation of wealth
among the $500 districts. Dis
trict so of Okanogan County
shows total valuation of only
$14,453 on which it is able tC
raise with 20-mill tax only
$3.50, while District 3O3 of Clal'
:. lam County has a valuation OF
xS1, 100000 on which it raises
1851 with a " mill tax. In other
words the poor OkanOgan district
pays forty times as much as the
rich Clallam district and derives
only one-fourth as much to oper'
ate a school with equal needs
Zone with 8, the other with II
pupils.) One school possesses 131
times the others ability to pa!
on the basis of the local taxing
unity and extremes Of high ant
low resources are by no mean!
single and rare cases; the survey
shows that Washington has Al
rural districts each with al
euualized assessed valuation o.
less than $4,000, and Al Others
with more than 100000 each
With about 400 children in eacf
group the first group has a tota
valuation of only $1,O42,939
while the other group has a com
bined valuation of $29,9OS,279
One million-dollar district ha
only IL grade children, whil'
another million dollar distric
has $40 children, with higl
school to maintain. Betweei
these wide extremes the district
of the state vary with great in
consistency Of wealth and numoe
of children to be educated.
The proposed remedy is to as
the state as whole to bea
one-half of the cost Of the com
mon schools, leaving the othe
half to be borne by the countie
and the local districts. The nal
borne by the state would mea
!. an equal levy on wealth whereve
- found within the states borders
This state school tax would D
distributed according to tn
needs of education, namei!
where the children are.
Eyorv school district wOul