The New York herald., 1922-12-27
RYAN INVESTIGATES
PART TIME SCHOOL
Can't See Why More Children
Don't Get Seats After
Spending Millions.
PROBLEM IN ARITHMETIC
10000 Additional Sittings,
1919 New Registrations,
26,752 More on Part Time.

A lively meeting of the Board of Edu-
cation is promised for this AFTERNOON
when George j. Ryan, president. is tc
urge members to take action In making
a rigid inquiry into the causes and re-
sponsibility for the abnormal increase
in part time pupils In a letter to men,
bers OF the board yesterday MIR. Ryan
asked them TO give careful considera-
ton to the action to be taken to hold
to strict accountability those responsible
for the conditions.
Since 1921 more than 500 900 900 has been
spent to provide about 10000 additional
sittings. Mr. RYAN said. But despite
these new facilities and the fact that the
increase in registrations during the
period amounted to only 1888. the num-
Der of pupils placed on part time in
creased 26.752. he said.
I'm the light of these cold facts, 1t
would seem that there is some explana-
tion due Mr.. Ryan said last night. IF
the additional sittings furnished have not
changed the situation but, on the other
hand. made it worse, there must be
something back of it,"
Mr. Ryan said he would not charge
that the trouble lay with the school ad-
minstration. He said there might be
several reasons for the discrepancy In
his letter, however, to the members OF
the board he said
Having ascertained these facts (the
26.752 increase in part time pupils), 1
requested the Superintendent of Schools
to furnish me with a statement Of the
total sittings of record September. 1921,
and October, 1922. These figures dis
close a net increase in sittings of only
Estes. This is 16,104 fewer than the
number of new sittings reported as pro-
vided in our new schools, additions and
temporary buildings.
"At such rate of progress it Is never
going TO be possible to eliminate part
time. Approximately half of all the
sittlngs provided at a cost of $22, 1S5. .s3i
have been lost. Furthermore, the sit
tings provided have not resulted in any
reduction in the total number of chill
dren on part time in the city"
MIR. Ryan said the investigation he
would urge was to have two ends The
question OF new facilities needed to
care for the part time pupils and the
question of Improvement in the admin
istrative organization of schools. He
expected the investigation to be taken
up by the superintendents and their
executive head to probe further.
William L. Ettinger. Superintendent
of Schools. declared the letter of Mr..
Ryan to the members of the School
Board was not a logical presentation
of facts. He said the figures given were
accurate. but that it was not right to
compare q month in one year with
another month in another year. Be-
fore presenting figures. he said, there
should be careful investigation of every
single school,
That's a nice sort of Christmas pres
ent," Mr.. Ettinger declared. pointing to
the letter. \He criticized Mr.. Ryan for
making public his criticisms before they
had been submitted to the board. He
was asked if he considered the letter
personal attack on him. He replied
that it seemed to be an attack on every
body connected with the administra-
tion of schools.