Watauga Democrat. [volume] (Boone, Watauga County, N.C.) 1888-current, 1929-04-04
DOUGHERTY AND
THE SCHOOL BILL
Local Educator Says He Wrote Sal
ary Sections of Hancock Law;
Teachers Protected for Two Years
Against Salary Changes

ian Teachers College, is not the au-
thor of the new school bill, universal
as the tradition has become in two
weeks, but he is the author of sec
tions Is and 10 which make the law
existing regarding salary schedules
of teachers and superintendents, he
told the Daily News bureau today.
And he believes he should be crown
ed with bays rather than pelted with
bad eggs.
Mr.. Dougherty discloses the dad
dyship of that bill. It has many
fathers. Judge Nat Townsend wrote
whole bill from which the new
measure received much heft. Sena-
/ ter Tom johnson, now Judge John
| son, wrote section four which i'm
poses upon the equalization board
the duty of studying and comparing
the cost of operating the public
schools in the several counties Of
the state, as assembling such infor-
nation and data, relative to cost of
school supplies, equipment and cur
rent expenses of operation, material
which is designed to ascertain for
the board of equalization what
should be the proper standard of
cost for operating the public schools
of each of the several counties in
the state. This section further pro
vides for examination into the sew
eral county budgets, into supervis-
ion and cost of transportation, and
provides for the refusal to pay any
voucher to any county that fails to
conduct its school administration in
a businesslike manner.
Senator B. S. Womble, a third
father Of the bill, put the teaching
standards into the bill, and former
Representative A. M. Graham of
Sampson, member ,of-the equalizing
board, wrote the sections relating to
distribution of the fund. A. f..
Woltz, another member, put his
hands to the plow and did not look
back. Frank w. Hancock, Gran
villeS representative, revised the
whole bill after it was given to him !;
State Superintendent A. T. Allen
put in sections 16 and II at the be-
hest of the senate, these sections
dealing with the number of teachers
and the number of pupils in the ele-
mentary and high schools. Mr..
Dougherty put in the provision that
there should be fund of $500, 900
to lift the teaching personnel up 90
the average. He added this in Sec
ton 10, then put on section Is,
which fixes the schedule of salaries
recommended by the state board of
education, making the law what
hitherto had been advice.
Senators Brawley and Weaver
added the sections which take out
the seven big cities of the seven
richest counties not participating in
the fund, thus making them law
unto themselves.
Mr.. Dougherty talked more today
than he ever did. He says he would
be very proud to be the author Of
this bill because he would have the
satisfaction of making law in 1929
what has been hitherto the fiat of
school men in the state. For two
years, at least, the teachers are pro-
tected by statute from any changes
in salaries.
He does not think there is so
much mystery about the bill. 1t has
been described by the papers as very
occult, therefore the reader goes a.
it with predisposition to mystiii-
cation. He insists that county su-
perintendents, so far from having
their salaries slashed are safeguard
ed. "Some of our superintendents
have been getting only $1,000 a
year," he said today. "They will get
$4,000 at the very least and may get
as much as $2,750 under this law.
If after complying with the state
law their home boards wish to raise
them still higher the law allows It.
The superintendents of Camden and
Clay may each get $4,000 where
they now receive $1,800."
Mr.. Dougherty denies that this bill
throws teachers out of employment; ;
that's mere propaganda, he declares,
and he illustrated how instructors
who are too numerous in some
schools may be transferred to other
places where there are too few.
Sometimes that shift will be made
necessary by making new school.
But he does not expect to see any
falling off of the good teachers. The