The Daily Alaska empire., 1930-12-16
PROGRESSING BACKWARD.

The action of the lower House of Congress in transferring from the Office of Education to the Bureau of Indian Affairs the schools maintained and operated for the benefit of Indians and Aski- mos of Alaska comes as a distinct surprise to all Alaska Not even officials here representing the Interior Department were cognzant of such plan and there has been absolutely no discussion of it, In all of the consideration given to the Federal school program and the policies Of the Offlce o1 Education in it's Alaska work, such an eventuation was never at any time seriously mentioned. On the surface at least, the transfer seems to have been the progeny of hastily considered idea of someone who was almost entirely lacking in knowl- edge of the local Federal school system and it's widely scattered units.
 Perhaps the Office of Education is not the proper agency to have charge of this work. It IS conceivable that objections might arise to 1t for two reasons First it may be the desire of the present Administration in power to limit the scope of that bureaus activity to scientific and technical phases of the countrys educational problems and end it's administrative duties. Second it may be the hope of the Administration to bring the control of the schools closer to Alaska.
 The desirability of the first step is, of course, strictly matter for the Administration to decide. If it feels the Office of Education can render the nation better service by looping off it's administra tive functions undoubtedly it is right to take the steps necessary effect that end But it does not bring closer to Alaska the administration of the Federal school system by transferring control rom one Washington bureau to another It can only do so by moving the seat of authority from the national capital to Alaska
 It is well known that the Administration has for many months been moving in exactly the opposite direction to that taken by the House in this in stance It has adopted a policy to end the con- of Indian schools in the States It has, in fact gone further than that. It has taken definite steps to abolish the entire Indian reservation system which would have the effect of ending the very existence of the Bureau of Indian Affairs by wpng the things and activities with which it has been concerned To transfer to it's jurisdiction the Indian schools of Alaska would tend merely to give it new lease on life without at the same time accomplishing anything beneficial to the schools themselves.
 The Indian Bureau, at present constituted, may be high class and efficient in every respect. But that has not always been true It is one of the governmental agencies which, for many decades, has been almost continuously under fire. Many scandals some reaching nationwide proportions have been laid at it's door. Possibly this was more because the system it typified altogether un- American than by reason of faulty personnel But whatever the cause, the fact remains that 1t IS not just the kind of agency that Alaskans will wei come in this field.
 Any change in jurisdiction should effectuate a change of locale of control to the Territory. The way was properly exempfied last year when control of the Reindeer Administration taken out ot the hands of the Office of Education and vested in the Governor of Alaska. This was a step toward centrazation here of Federal authority. If change from the present system of school administration is thought wise certainly the interests of the schools themselves and of the Territory generally would be better served if it were also placed in the hands of the Governor He is the representative Of the Administration and of the Interior Department here and as such would be better able to administer the school system than another Washington bureau To take it away from agency that, through a third of a century of experience has acquired 3 fine working knowledge of conditions prevailing here and learned to look upon its problems ron a territorial viewpoint and turn it over to another agency that has never been remotely connected with Alaska knows nothing of conditions to bt met and handicaps to be overcome, and which mus be educated to the territorial view of things, is the absolute negative of progress.