The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1931-06-04
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The New York School System
By JORGE

Very recently some gentleman in the Tammany
Board of Ignorance, which is miscalled Board
of Education" figured out that it would be
grand idea to expell all children from the schools
who show signs of intelligence enough not to
agree with the notion that capitalism is per-
fectIy all right
That being the case, it is well to examine
just what kind of Board of Education" New
York endures. Firstly, we may call attention to
the fact that a test made public recently, a
test carried out by absolutely kosher capitalist
educators among some 1000 pupils, revealed
that these victims of Tammany knew apparent
ly much less even of simple factual knowledge,
than if they had stayed home and played with
the cat instead of attending classes.
Further, not so long ago, it was revealed that
the big cheese-or cheeses-of the Board, hav-
ing had some brighter persons write text-b books,
not only assumed authorship of such books but
managed to get them approved by the Board
(not hard taskD and made bags OF
money from their sale. Quite like Tammany.
Now an Investigations doubtless by rival graft
ers but none the less useful-exposes how this
Board of Education" get land on which to
build schools. On May 49, gent named Fly
Maran, testified before the Investigators, ad-
nlitted situation which, boiled down into an
example, is briefly revealed in the following:
Maran owned track of 200 lots on Sedgwick
Ave, in the Bronx About March /, 1927, q
bozo named Ttorowitz came to Maran for an
option on thirty of these lots, which he selected
carefully from all the rest A month later, in
April, the Board of Education began to discuss
buying land somewhere in that neighborhood for
a school. On May 25, 1927 the Board of Edu-
cation definitely decided to buy just 80 lots
and as luck would have it-precisely those thirty
lots which HoroWitz had selected
HoroWitz had paid no money nor had he signed
any papers and Maran was happy that he had
such a. wonderful friend, so happy, in fact, that
when he was paid $4,000 for those lots he
presented Horowitz with $4,000. Maran said
Horowitz knew who to go to-" so he sold
another school site and paid Horowitz $4,000
Horowtz evidently had the Board of Education
eating out of his hand.
Now let's see something else A reader sent
us copy of "The News outline" little sheet
put out for children in the public schools. We
got the edition of March 9-l3 entirely devoted
to the vilest kind of lies about the Soviet Union.
1t is headed: will Other Nations Buy Russas
Goods?" and it spins long yarn about 'how
Russia produces her goods" the old stuff
forced labor. "the use Of men who are not paid
for their labor" and "the products of their
labor belong to the state and not to the men
who do the work" Nothing is said about school
sites or text books.
But the sting of the thing is in True False
Test" at the end; statements which the pupil is
supposed to respond to as true or ''false," so
that the teacher can judge supposedly, if the
pupil has learned what was said.
The kid who answers true" to the test state
ment: Russia forces men to work in lumber
camps" is judged to be bright boy who has
learned his lesson. But if he answers false
er, ha!-then he is not only a. dull scholar,
but is listed among those reds, the Pioneers.
whom the Tammany grafters in the Board of
Education want to expell from the schools
We don't think it necessary to say any more
about the N Y. Board of Education