Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1929-09-08
COMPILATION OF SCHOOL LAWS
FOR DISTRICT NOW IN PRESS
Comprehensive Collection of Regulations
In Book Form Is Assigned for Guidance
of Board of Education.

sist entirely of children whose parents
were unable to pay for their tuition.
In this the colored children unhappily
had no part. for the earliest statutes
applicable to this group were enacted
on May 81, 1852. Colored children were
not only in physical slavery, but they
were also In mental bondage, with no
daily intellectual mamma for a period
much longer than the 40 years of will
derness travel by the children Of Israel
OF Biblical story.
Cites Legislative "Quirks."
perusal of the compilation Of school
laws will show many quirks in legisla-
ton. When the Washington citizenry
had suffrage, back in 1850, an act of
the joint city council set forth that no
person could vote unless he had paid a
school tax. LaXity in attendance at
sessions of the board of school trustees
was strictly dealt with, for in 1853 the
absence of trustee for three successive
meetings vacated his seat The public
school doors in 1866 did not swing open
to any child that sought knowledge or
who went in obedience to- compulsory
law. The city council rulings admitted
only the children of bona f1de citizens.
An old statute, passed in 1873 and now
obsolete. set the minimum number of
pupils in any new school at So for one
teacher. When this arbitrary number
is noted one wonders whether the early
city fathers did not have in mind q
deck OF cards when they asked of Con-
gresS the passage of this law.
The German language found a place
In the schools as early as 1862 only to
be thrown out by act of Congress for
the two years of war stress, in l9l8-I9.
One law well known and oft quoted by
accounting officers of the schools and
other District departments is the pen
atty wherein the jail doors yawn to re-
ceive the person guilty Of overdrawing
an appropriation.
The evolution of the medical inspec-
ton service in the schools reads almost
like q romance when successive steps
are noted from the law Of 1864 requiring
vaccination, to the introduction of a
staff of physicians to inspect schools
and pupils. and the expansion of this
professional service by nurses, dental
operators, and eyesight clinics.
Tuition Most Important Topic.
Probably no phase of school activity
than has that relating to nonresident
tuition. Originally only District chill
dren were admitted to the public
schools. Beginning with 1899, outsiders
were accorded school privileges upon
payment of the full cost of tuition for
the grade entered. A more liberal pol
icy was followed in 1906, which admitted
children II parents paid any taxes
whatsoever in the District. An incident
may be cited which shows why Congress
repealed the statute. School officials
noticed in the data on nonresident
pupils that five different Virginians
paid taxes on a single vacant District
lot assessed at $50. An investigation
disclosed that they held a joint owner
ship of said lot AS the tax rate was
81 so per 500, the taxes we're rs cents,
and each paid his quota. or is cents. for
which they received tuition exemptions
aggregating several hundred dollars.
A law of 1912 changed this so that a
tax paid by a nonresident must equal
or exceed the cost of instruction to
allow his children free tuition. Some
apparent hardships which developed
under this inelastic statute were oc-
casionally circumvented adroitly, as the
following episode will illustrate nom
resident parent who paid $685. on real
estate taxes into the District treasury
had a son in attendance in the high
school at time when the tuition
charge was $68. The tax was 81 so
short of exemption and his distress was
genuine. Being resourceful. this nom
resident met the requirement by the
payment Of 80 for dog tax on an ami
NAL that existed only. in fiction.
Law Of 1915 Stin in Force.
BY a statute passed in 1914 a tax paid
to the District, in whatever sum, might
be applied to the payment of tuition. A
law more generous to the public outside
of Washington was passed in 1915
which is still in force: Hereafter all
pupils whose parents are employed on
cially or otherwise in the District of
Columbia shall be admitted and taught
free Of charge in the schools Of said
District"
No department of the schools has
been the subject of as many opinions
by the corporation counsel as has nom
resident tuition The outsider seeks to
oyo;I I,ipocaIf aHLa of the y,rivileCes IF