The producers news. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1918-1937, 1936-05-22
Glass Lines and Intolerance in
Public Education in MOntana-Free
Text Books for Private Schools
BY H. L. MAURY
BY Fl. L. MAURY


U.S. 80 +l1tored in private schools.
The seven children of Mrs. Maury
and myself have all been tuEoreu
in public schools. I am still IN
doubt as to which is the better
nIen for children. The closest l
c Con come to an answer is that one
: hefter for some children, the
Cher Is, better for others. Young
children need drilling in rudl-
Tonnts In private schools they are
drilled better. I find neglect Oh
thoroughness in the Butte puO1c
GRADE schools. l think the paro-
chial schools in Butte insist more
on accuracy in work of pupils tnan
the public schools.
am still old-fashioned enough
to lean toward separate hlgh
schools for boys and girls, but aa-
ditional expense is factor here co
he considered. The United States
Supreme Court has said that par
| ents have an inalienable right to
send their children to private
schools if they desire; that legls..
Iation NAV not deprive them OF
This right. So there the question:
finds its final answer with me-
Whoever disagrees with that an
swer think a little intolerant
and unwilling to follow literally
. the nrinciple of Jeffersonian Dem
ocracv about freedom of religion.
The cost of public education IN
: Montana has grown by. multlples
in twenty-five years. 1t Is heavy
item in the budgets. 1t wouold be
much greater were it not for prl-
; vate schools. The parents who,
with severe effort, send their
t children to private schools pay
! equal taxes to support the puDhc
schools for other peoples child
t rem. The state, by law, reserves
' the right of visitation OF these
private schools. Every right has a
corresponding duty. The oppon-
ents of private schools argue that
children in them lack loyalty to
the state and develop a complex OF
y isolation. :,
I The way to overcome that, il
there is any such complex or lack
= is for the state to aid private
schools.
When on the School Board TWEEN
/, tv years ago, I voted for free tex
- books in the High School, books
were already free in the grades
; INQUIRY revealed that many child
rem we're emitting high school be
cause their parents could not bu.
books. I think that during this de
preston, Catholic children can b
found out of school because thel
ed parents cannot buy books.
as Tt seems to me, a Protestant TO
or generations, (Mattew Maury,
SIS distant ancestor of mine was
err CLERGYMAN in Virginia of tn
IS. Church Of England, 1716, A. D.
that liberation of the the religio
of others, equable division of tax
es, encouraging all children to 6
to some school, inspiring loyalt
to the state, relieving heads {
large families of a serious burden
preventing any complex of isols
ton in the child, demands that tn
state, through her RESPECTIVE
school district boards, furnish FIRE
to all private sectarian schools
Catholic, Methodist, Episcopalia
or any others, all reasonably ne'
essary text books and supple
from year to year as occasion d.
mands.
But this is but a branch of
much larger problem. There is I
equality Of opportunity of tt
youth in Montana to gain that j
of after life, that superiority cor
pick, that chance to lead the mo-
useful life, happier existence, TIL
does spring from higher educatiC
and the study Of the liberal ar
and the training for the so-call'
professions.
The professions of law, meC
cine, teaching engineering, thee
ogy, etc. are now closed in tn
state to such as have not had
least two years of successful CT
lege work in the liberal arts. E.
perience with five children at t
branch of the Montana Universe
at Missoula, convinces me that
pupils expense per year there
One Thousand Dollards, unless t
Z pupils home happens to be at M
soula. Thus, to put a young m
-. through for admission to the B
- costs Five Thousand Dollars und
the recent rule of the Sunrel