Las Vegas age. [volume] (Las Vegas, Nev.) 1905-1947, 1925-02-28
SPRAGUE GIVES VIEWS /
ON LAW ENFORCEMENT
Senator Replies to Critics OF His
Proposed State Enforce I
ment Measure
IContributedl

senate Dill NO. OU, luLNOuuSCU "
request of the State Survey Commis-
sion, represents some of the most
pernicious Legislation that has been
proposed at this session. In 1t one can
see the work of one F. N. Fletcher,
editor of the Nevada Tax Review.
This is entitled: "An Act Concerning
Public Schools and Repeating Ger
tain Acts Relating Thereto"
Section / proposes a State Board
OF Education consisting OF five citl-
zens OF the State who shall be well
qualified and taxpayers, this board to
be appointed by the Governor OF the
State. 1t is not necessary that any
of these five be an educator or know
ANYTHING about schools. The state
board, as it now stands, consists OF
the governor, the president OF the
State University and the superintend-
ent of public instruction. Two OF
these, a majority of the board, are
educators. One is a statesman. TWO
are directly elected by the people.
Why this proposal to take the ap-
pointment of the State Board OF Ed
ucation out of the hands of the peo-
pie? Certain individuals might profit
by this change but the schools would
not. :,
Section 2 says: 1.-THE board shall
elect it's president and vice-president
and a secretary who may or may not
be a member of the board, and SAID
secretary shall perform the duties re-
uuired by said State board and shall
be paid for his services not to ex-
ceed $500 per year from the STATE
SCHOOL FUND on
order of the State Board of Educa-
ton" This is propaganda mislead-
ing one to believe that it is an econ
omy measure, whereas under the pres
ent system the State superintendent
acts as secretary of the State Doaru
without any additional compensation.
Why should the author OF this Dill
want to throw away $500 of the school
money that rightfully belongs to the
children of Nevada? Does someDody
need this money more than the chill
dren do?
Section 4 outlines the powers and
duties of this State Board OF Educa-
ton, not one of whom MUST be an
educator. The first duty is to pre-
scribe couses of study for the puDhc
schools. Suppose that the members
of this board were not educators,
which would likely be the case, now
could they make courses OF study Tor
the public schools when not CONVEX
SAINT with school matters? Making a
course of study is one OF the most
technical things that an educator Is
called upon to do.
The second duty is to adopt lists Oh
books for school use. Judging school
books is a specially among educators
themselves, and yet the author OF this
bill proposes to have five laymen not
conyersant with the requirements Oh
school books to select from the large
number of books published, those
which the children Of Nevada shall
use. We admire his game spirit. He
is willing to take chance. But the
parents of the children are not Will
ing to have them pay the penalty for
this "gameness." They want their
children's books selected by people
who know how to judge school books.
Section 9 reads as follows: by
and with the consent OF the state
Board of Education the State super
intendent of public instruction shall
on or before the second Monday OF
July of each year appoint the super
intendent of the county high school
of each county or, in case or MS re-
fusal or inability to serve, some other
suitable person who shall be a resi-
dent of said county to act as deputy
superintendent of schools In salo
county for the term of one year from
September 1st following his appoint
ment."
This is a very harmless sounding
clause, bat let us see what 1t would
meean. In some counties where prac-
tically the whole population lives IN
one town this might work. In clark
county we have three county h1gn
schools all equal in standing. Which
one of these principals would be SUI
perintendent of schools for Clark
county? The people of Las Vegas
would want their principal In their
high school and not scattering his en-
ergy all over Clark county. Possibly
the people at Bunkerville and over
ton might feel the same. Then TINS
State board selects some other SUIT
ABLE person. This need not De
teacher, he need know nothing what
ever about school work. Would this
be an improvement? There are no
qualifications whatever required ex-
cept that he be a suitable person.
At present the deputy superintend.
ient must hold teachers certificate OF
high school grade, which means that
he must be a college graduate or It's
equivalent. He must have had not
less than As months of successful ex-
perience in teaching, at least ~
months of which shall have been IN
+ha Ctafo of Navada Ry the present
standard the public is protected from
having their children supervised by
novices or people who know nothing
about school work. Do we want to
give this up for a supervisor who
needs to have no qualifications ex-
cept that he is SUITABLE? We are
not willing to have this proposed
State board judge who is suitable to
supervise our schools.
One Of the best things about the
present supervision is the four-year
tenure of office. It is absurd to pro-
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