The Monett times., 1922-11-03

S~AioVAo VI IIC CouIlIys SIla4I leave II
to your imagination to work out
what the situation of the poorest is.
There are 2S out of 119 districts in the
county which are worse off than
Eagle Rock.
Many people believe that this poor
condition among rural schools is the
result Of the farmers. failure TO spend
as much money proportionally for the
education of their children, but this is
not the case. Throughout Missouri
the average daily amount spent per
child for education is. twenty four
cents in the first class High school
districts, while in the Rural districts
it is forty-four cents per child per day
In other words the farmer is spend
ing almost twice as much per child per
day for the education of his child as
the city man Is paying for his, and
what are his returns? His child gets
eight years Of schooling with an aver
age school term of 12l days with
meagre equipment, often inefficient
teacher and under the worst con-
ditions, while the city mans child gets
twelve years of schooling with an
average length of 1T days with bet
ter trained teachers and under the
most favorable conditions. These
conditions are not due to the actual
amount of money which is expended
or for the total assessed valuation of
property per child. The assessed
valuation of city property per child is
only SS667, while the Rural district
is $4,27S. If the actual amount Of
money expended per child were the
determining factor, the rural boy and
girl would receive decidedly the best
education. With the present con-
ditions existing in the Rural schools,
we can not expect to secure teachers
of broad experience and training. Out
of the III teachers in Barry County
128 have only a County Certificate, "a
have Teacher Training Certificates
which are issued on the completion of
the Teacher Training course in the
High school, while the other 10 have
College or University diplomas. Only
10 have received College or University
training. Such are the conditions as
they now exist.
We want to appeal to every voter to
help the Rural districts to carry tins
measure at the coming election be-
cause the rural districts alone can not
carry it for themselves. This is for
the progress of the rural schools. My
reason for doing that is the fact that
the Rural schools alone will not suffer
bv its loss. The first class High
School districts do not come under the
Jurisdiction Of this law. This fact
has caused the rural districts to iook
upon it with disfavor as they feel that
because the first class High Schoo
districts are left out of its jurisdiction
it will ultimately work some handicap
upon them. This however is not the
case. There are three real reasons
for leaving the first class High School
districts out of its Jurisdictions. In
the first place many of the financial
concerns of the large cities have gone
outside of the city limits TO establish
their factories and so escape the city
tax. By locating several of them II
one little district they can reduce the
school tax to nothing or possibly five
or ten cents. Under the County Unit
there would be a uniform tax rate
throughout the county and it woulc
force these concerns to pay twenty
five or thirty cents on the hundred
dollars valuation, iR school tax. The
second reason is that the districts now
maintaining a first class High schoo
with a levy or probably $1.3O were
not willing for their school fund t.