The Birmingham age-herald., 1923-04-30
PEOPLES FORUM
Distribution of school Fund.

To the Editor of The Age-Herald:
 In the Peoples Forum, Age Herald. April 2. your correspon- dent from Talladega has ar inter- esting letter that might well be read by all your subscribers. Judg- ing from the last paragraph, he Is quite sure that he has located the blame for all the inequalities that exist between the rural and the urban schools. He may or may not be correct. I wonder if he has ever attended a meeting of the county superintendents of educa- ton. If he has he has doubtless been interested In hearing the earnest discussion by that body of men as to how an equalization of opportunities between the rural and the urban child can be had. I wonder if he knows that in that body of men who are endeavoring to render professional service in- stead of political service every ef- fort is made to benefit the boys and girls on the farm; from which each of them has come and whose conditions each of them knows. ] wonder, too, if he knows that the law requiring schools to run by public funds for an equal length of time is complied with as fully as any law perhaps we have.
 Does your correspondent know, too, that under the old method there was scarcely a small town that did not get more than it's share of public funds? Does he know that in some cases a month, two months or more was allowed from public funds longer than its rural neighbor got because influ- ential men were able to convince the superintendent that justice CD demanded more to them be- more locally for their schools? This did happen occasionally l am informed. It Is not likely that your correspondent knows that in one county at least there are numbers of rural districts in which the total school tax paid-county three mill, county one mill and state three mill-does not amount to $500 or $500. and yet that same district is receiving from $1,000 to $1,500 general funds for its schools.
 Then, too, I wonder if your cor respondent, when he referred to page 51, Annual Report State De- partment of Education, thought that very few of his readers would read that page and see at the lead of table XXXI the state
 
 there given are for all current ex- penses, and reflect. that for the city child that included from, other sources than general fund, the janitor costs, the library costs, the extra one. two. three or even four months that the child of the ur- ban father paid for himself. am of the opinion that if he examine the per capita cost as borne by the general school fund for any urban school he will find 1t less than that Of many strictly rural schools, es- pecially of any of the poorly at tended rural schools, for in one county at least the most costly schools are the rural schools, sev- eral of which go above $5 and $6 the month as compared with $2. 50 to $4 for the small towns in the county. I wonder. too. if the cor respondent read the pages immedi- ately following the one quoted and noted the concern felt over the se- rious equalities that exist-in fact, did he know that they existed un- til his attention was called to 1t by the state department of educa- ton? EARL M ADDISON,
 County Superintendent Education. Moulton. Ala, April 2S, 1923.