Payette enterprise. (Payette, Canyon Co., Idaho) 1909-1935, 1924-05-08
MISS DORATHY SUR, SENIOR AT
OCsTELIO HIGH SCHOOL
WON 2ND. PRIZE ON
E,jSAY-$5.O 90 GOLD
PIECE
"HOW MUCH DO WE PAY FOR
EDUCATION?r

Last year, in order to cut dowI
taxes, the state Legislature allowed
for educational purposes, by law
tax levy of ten mills. Besides thii
could be granted four mills fol
transportation. Any other amount tC
be allowed was to be voted upon by
the taxpayers of the locality. the
levy for last year was eighteen mills
By correct estimation the minimum
needed is seventeen mills, that being
accomplished by cutting down teach
ers' wages, and by minimizing the
| equipment But if by negative vote
/ of the taxpayers of Pocatello enough
money is not given to run the schools
properly and efficiently, the expenses
will have to be cut down by one or
| two actions. Either the teachers, in
number and quality, and the supplies
must be cut down; or to all together
abolish the Senior High School.
Teachers are a product on the
market; they are as fluctuary as
the demand. Teachers are paid the
salaries that they themselves merit.
Even now Pocatello is suffering from
a lack of teachers. Each teacher is
being made to bear more than her
burden in the amount of pupils.
Another thing, the school system
is at present running on the mini
mum amount of supplies. Last years
purchase of books was lower than
that of the year before, but always
there must be a certain amount APP
propriated in the school budget for
this purpose. For heat and lighting
the cost is exceedingly great. Wheth-
er one thousand or one people are in
the building, the cost is the same for
janitors, coal, materials, and electric
ity. Can we in any way force our
conscience behind our selfishness and
deprive our students of a right to
better teachers and better equip
ment?
The second alternate, the abolish
ment of the whole Senior High
School, the Sophomore, Jnuior and
Senior year, is also impractical. This
action would force the students to-
go to the Tech, costing the state
money, or to other towns, forcing the
city to pay tuition for its students
because a High School is not pro-
vided for in Pocatello; or to utterly
VI ilOoC NPA-S ~
High School education.
Already, it is estimated and justly
stated, that our expenditures for lux
uries far exceed our taxes and ex-
penditures for education. In 1920
seventeen times as much was spent
for pleasure and Injuries than for ed
ucation. Are we going to continue to
spend our money for the delicacies
that our civilization has b.onght to
us and for bodily comfort, when our
minds will be degraded and lowered
into the depths of ignorance therein?
If you know a safe investment, lfl
you can recognize a genuine bar
gain, if you even begin to reason as
finance it is easy to prove that in
vesting your money in education is
the best investment that can be made.
The following figures are vouched
for by the United States Bureau OF
Education They are based upon /
the inv stigation of the earning pow
er of a number of boys from various
schools and classes at age of TWEEN
ty-fiye. At that age the boys who
went to work at fourteen were earn /!
ing on an average of S12.75 week. |
The boys of the same classes who /!
took a high school course were earn !