The Birmingham age-herald., 1924-12-10

caloosa county; Miss Rosa V. Strick- land, principal of Powell school of Blr- mingham city schools. This personnel is a guarantee of the character of the adoptions as well as of the quality and adaptability of the books selected.
 Under Five.Year Contract
 8. All adopted books are published bv companies that furnish them under fiye-year contracts. The state boa"l of education has authority at the end of any year to drop from the list any book that proves to be unsatisfactory, in which event the committee will select and adopt another.
 4. Our legislature has never provided for furnishing books at public expense, either through purchase or through the establishment and operation of state printery. Several states furnish ele- mentary books through purchase under contracts with publishers. Two states, California and Kansas, print their ele- mentary books. Advocates of this meth. cd claim that it reduces the cost Of books, while opponents contend that the apparent saving is made up either by difference in quality oi books by taxation in the form of direct and ln- direct appropriations.
 5. The prices of our books are deter mined by competitive bidding, the law reouiring that the committee take into consideration the size, quality, suDJect matter. material, printing, binding, me chanical execution and price, as well as the general suitability for the pur- nose desired and intended" Over DO publishers submitted bids in the last adoptiOns.
 6. In each subject in which three or more books were offered the committed selected the three regarded as most de sirable from a teaching point Of view from which list the lowest priced book was adopted. This method resulted Ill the selection of superior books at the lowest possible cost to patrons.
 Price Guarantee
 z. Both the law and the contracts provide that no book shall be sold IT Alabama at a price above that charged for the same book in any other state county or school district ln the United States under contract executed within the preceding 12 months. This provl sion of the law and the contracts ls guaranteed by bonds ranging from SlU, GOO to $3O,0O0.
 8. The last contracts were based nee essarily upon postwar prices, wnich like the prices of all other commodities are much higher than were pre-wal prices. It is matter of common knowledge that all prices are up iron 50 per cent to 150 per cent, the average
 
 creased cost of books has resulted from the corresponding increases Tn the prices of materials, in the wages paid to work men and in the transportation charges. 10. The revised an denriched course of study. the increased attendance upon the schools and the adoption of mod ern and standard books will inevitably result in an increased individual and aggregate outlay for the current year However, for the remaining four years of the five-year period covered py the adoptions, books will pass from one child to another in the same family oi be sold by one family to another, there by reducing the average amount expeno ed for books by the individual anu p1 the state as whole. Il, The amount expended for books
  positories was in round numbers $o3o, GOO. For the current year, based upor sales to date, the Repositories estimate maximum expenditure of $1,25O,OOO and for the five-year period an aver age annual expenditure of about hal that amount.
 Old Books Antiquated 12. Prior to the last adoptions som, IaE Ako ho1 in VIS years, some for 15 years, majorit! for longer than 10 years. Most of then were anticipated some were practical! obsolete. It is as impossible for teach CTS and pupils. to give and receive th best of instruction with antiquatet books and methods as it is for farm CTS, merchants, bankers, artisans ant other workers to achieve the maximum of success with the facilities and prac tices of generation ago.. It would b foolish, if not criminal, to spend mil lions of dollars for schools and at tn same time compel or permit teacher and students to use out-Of-date books Manifestly the committee was justifie' in making changes.
 13. The committee made such change only as it deemed essential. In submit ting it's report to the state board 0 education it said: "The committee ha been mindful at every step of your sug gestion that, in view of the added ex pense involved, no changes should b made except such as were deemed i'm perative. We have adhered strictly t that injunction. Indeed, if in our de sire to avoid adding a single unneces sary penny to the cost of education we have not overstepped and made sac rifice of the childhood of Alabama, W shall be most happy"
 JOHN W. ABERCROMBIE,
 State Superintendent of Education
 OyERLOADING CLAIMED