The Glasgow courier. [volume] (Glasgow, Mont.) 1913-current, 1922-02-10

The financial situation of many of
the Valley county school districts is
alarming, according to County Super
intendent Of Schools Mrs. Olivia
Forster Patton. Because of a lack of
funds, schools have already been clos
ed and before spring many others will
follow their example. This means a
short term of school in most cases
for the rural children. This is serious
as the districts that pay the highest
special levies are very often the dis
tricts that have short terms. Valley
county special levies vary from 0-25A
mills.
Following is a short history of the
County Unit system which is being
adopted in other counties in the state
and each week Mrs. Patton will have
an article in The Courier outlining
the county unit system and it's ad-
vantages:
In the early history of the colonies
there could be little communication,
little exchange of commodities and
ideas. Every settlement was almost
an Independent republic and its law
making body was the town meeting.
Under those pioneer conditions the
"district SCHOOL, sprang up, serving
the people of those times as no other
system could. Gradually the trails
became roads, Indians were subdued
and civilization spread.
It became apparent to those wise
old patriots who were fired with zeal
for a democratic school system that
all children were not getting equal
educational opportunities. This be.
came even more evident after rail-
roads were built and other corpora
lions came in to develop the country.
The children who happend to live
away from the railroad often had the
most meager advantages while those
near the railroad, or other corpora
ton property, received the benefit of
the big tax which such corporations
distributed. Under the district such
system inequality in educational op-
portunities, as we'll as in the tax paid
by individuals for the support of
schools, was inevitable. Therefore
the states that first started the dis
trict system were the first to aban.
don it when it had outworn it's use
fulness.
Several of the Atlantic coast states
adopted the township as a unit fol
the support of schools in place o1
the district system. This was the
natural unit as the township organi-
zation of government in eastern
states is much more prominent than
is the county organization. In fact,
Rhode Island at least has no county
government, no county officers. South
ern and some middle western and
western states gradually changed
from the district to the county unit
system. Maryland schools were or
ganized under the county unit plan
when the state was created and this
one state has had county unit for over
a hundred years.
Ten states have the pure county
unit system, i. e., supported finan-
cially by a tax on county-unit valua-
ton and managed and controlled by
a county board of education. These
states are Utah, New Mexico, Louis
lana, Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee,
Kentucky, North Carolina, Maryland,
Florida.
Ten states, Delaware, Ohio, Vir-
ginia, South Carolina, Mississippi,
Texas, Arizona, California, Washing
ton and Arkansas have the semi
county-unit system, i. e., supported
financially by the unit but largely
controlled and managed by local
school boards. 1t is this system that
is made optional with the voters Of
third class districts in Montana. Me-
braska has an optional county unit