New Britain herald., 1929-05-04
TRANSPORTING PUPILS


 rural problems has been under sur vey under the silded dome of tn, capital the past few days. one whicl possesses more than ordinary inter est for city dwellers because of thu clean-cut nature of the issue.
 As everyone is aware. the ''littl' red scnoolhouse" has been disap bearing throughout the country dis tricts. Instead of having a one room school serving the chiidrer from a restricted district. the ten dency has been to construct "firs class schools" in the towns. te which children for. many mile. around come each day. These new, fangled town schools often are a. up-to-date as the schools in the cities.
 But what the brethren in the country want to know is simply this: Who is to pay for the trans portation:
 The rural argument runs that if the state educational authorities en- courage the elimination of the little two by four schools at the cross TO two-by-four schools at the cross roads in favor of the larger build inss six to ten miles distant, more must be done by the state to defray the expene of transporting the pupils.
 over fairly long distances eats up conside erable of the tax revenue of the small towns. There is the typical case of Watertown, for instance Representative Hungerford of that town stated that out of every dollar Watertown raises, 70 cents is spent on the schools, while out of every dollar that the state raises, 20 cents is spent on schools. This he termed an unjust situation"
 It was because of this feeling b, the dirt road members of the House that it passed measure for state aid In transporting school children over the adverse report of the ap. committee. The te,npei of the country cousins in the Legis- :ature was we'll displayed by the vote, which vas overwhelming. True, in order to obtain support in the Senate. the $4OO,O00 appropriation was trimmed down to $2s0,000: but even the latter sum will transport pupils considering it would be an addition to the present costs.
 The support Of the Senate. how ever. failed rather ignominiously. The gentlemen connected with the state organization. and the senatos from the populous counties see no valid reason why the people in the cities should contribute more for the transportation of country pupils. Pupils in the cities furnish their own transportation. it can be argued except that the trolley company is prevailed upon to issue half-rate tickets for school children-and the country residents are expected to do the same.
 This marks the second time that the country legislators, who usually support the state organization rather raliantly, have been defeated by the organization when they attempted 10 put over something for their own benefit. The first instance was tn" 1irt road bill, which failed because .oo many country gentlemen were induced to waver. Now the school ssue, successful in the House. is 1owned in the Senate. If the small own representatives do not return home rather restive and with some- hing to think about they are more than they ought to be.
 The issue was valuable to the en- ire state by bringing up an angle of our educational system that can bear further discussion for probable action two years hence.