The Wilmington morning star., 1947-05-01
TODAY
TOMORROW
u Y WALTER

Many Woula agree With what
mas said in the preceding article
sbout Federal aid to the schools
az in the bill sponsored by Sen.
,tor Taft that the principle is
usll established that the nation
can readily afford to spend more
M education, and that the need
is very great. Yet some will be
rp1uctant to act, feeling that a bill
# this kind is a measure to tax
The people of states that do well
~ the benefit of states that do
badly.
Tney will, however, be astonish-
81 to find, if they look into the
natter. that the people e Of the
.oorer states with the poorest
%scbools actually make a greater
stfort actually devote a larger
uart of their income, to educate
heir children, than do the people
~ the richer and more favored
ttates. The people OF the poorer
st.tes can accept Federal money
sor their schools without loss of
,,lf-respect.
The reason for this is obvious,
,rce YOU think about it, but the
obvious often escapes us. The
noorer states have, Of course, less
income per taxpayer. But they
b,ve more children per taxpayer
Than the richer states. They have
- educate more children out OF
smaller resources.
IF we are talking of justice and
.eIf-reliance, then the COMPARE
cons are III their favor. A poor
s%sroiIv with five children cannot
1--WE each child as good opportu-
1itv as a rich family with one
rhild But that does not mean that
tbe poorer family has not tried to
do as well by its children as the
Ticher one. Now on the whole the
states with the worst schools
sosnd a bigger proportion Of their
incomes OH schools.
The fair measure Of a states
,billty to pay for education is the
,izo Of its income per child of
school age. The eleven states with
tbe smallest income per school =
age child in 1889 were, in the Or
der Of their sissippi,
Arkansas. Alabama, South Caro- :
lima. North Carolina, Georgia {,
Kentucky, New Mexico. Tennes-
sse. Louisiana, West Virginia. But
none Of these states would be
found on a list of the eleven which
devote the smallest part of their
income to schools.
Mississippi for example is at
the bottom Of the list in what 1t
spends on schools. But it is near
the top of the list, actually ninth,
for the whole country in the per-
centage of it's income which is de-
voted to education. It spends 3.4l
per cent of it's income. New York
spends 2.61 per cent of its income
But because Mississippi is so poor
but has relatively so many chill
dren, it has an average OF $500 to
spend on a classroom unit where
as New York has 81, 100 to spend
per classroom unit.
In other words the states with
the poorest schools are not those
which make the least effort. Many
Of them make the greatest effort.
New Mexico, for example, though
it is among the eleven which
spend the least, leads all the other
states in the proportion OF its in
come which it spends.
! do not, however, mean to give
the impression that the effort Of
the poorer states is consistently
greater than that of the richer
ones. But it is true that most of
them make an effort which is
near the average for the nation
as a whole.
There is, therefore, no moral
basis for Directing to Federal aid.
The Taft bill would tax individ :
uals wherever they live, and
would distribute h e proceeds to
states which, though they spend
IS per cent of their income on
schools, do not have enough mon
ey to provide $40 per pupil per
year.
I have labored this moral issue
because I assume that there is no
need to persuade any American
that schools are vitality important,
or that the nation as a whole sui
fers if the children of any part OF
it are i~literate, or grossly unedu-
Gated, or m~iseducated.
No doubt the mere expenditure
Of money will not give this coun-
try the education it needs to gov
ern itself and to prosper. That
calls for a lot more than money.
But mere money is needed ur-
gently, even desperately, to pro-
vide the simplest kind of ordinary
l~iteracy throughout The nation. On
that, whatever our theories Of ed
ucation we can all agree and
there is nc point in being compll-
Gated and subtle about it.
Copyright, 1947, New York TIL
hum Ipn