Evening star., 1949-09-08
High School Enrolment.

BY 1860, if the projections prove to be
substantially accurate, population of the
white high schools will have decreased by
about 600 and that of the colored high
schools will have increased by about 1885.
The new spingarn High School for col
ored, on which bids are to be invited soon,
is planned for capacity of 1900. A new
Armstrong school for colored has been
authorized, appropriations have been made
for the plans and the preliminary sketches
approved. The current Appropriation Act
carries money for plans for improvements
at the Dunbar colored high school, in
Guiding a new gymnasium. The Board OF
Education plans to initiate requests this
year leading to a new Cardozo building.
If such plans materialize, colored high
schools will be available to take care of
the present overcrowding plus the in
cfeasing loads within the next decade. The
Wilson Teachers College expedient would
relieve the present acute condition at
Cardozo and would tend to apply more
pressure to the completion of the building
program outlined above.
Transfer of Central to the colored divi-
sion, on the other hand, would mean prob
able abandonment of a considerable part
Of this building program. 1t would also
affect other plans for ultimate use OF
Central in the white school division, such
as those proposed in the Strayer report.
Central is rapidly losing its Importance
as a white senior high school. for the
area it serves is changing. The Strayer
survey proposed its ultimate use as
city-wide institute offering technical train
ing in a two-year program above the
present high school course; or its con-
version as an administration building
which ultimately will be provided to re-
place the old Franklin; or it's continued use
as at present as a combined junior and
senior high school. The Wilson Teachers
College transfer to Central or Roosevelt
would be temporary expedient, for which
q more permanent solution would be re-
uuired. For our teachers colleges-white
and colored-were rated low in the Strayer
report and they need to be improved in
many respects Their combination in one
excellent school may become the solution.
A switch now of Central from white to
colored might be the most immediate and
permanent method of relieving the acute
overcrowding in the colored high schools.
There is room in other white high schools,
senior and junior, to accommodate enroll
ment at Central now. While this plan has
been most heatedly opposed, no plan has
been advanced that is free of diSadvan-
tages But if our dual system of schools is
to be maintained-at considerable added
expense to the community development
of new colored high schools would seem to
be preferable, in the long run, to assign
ment of Central to the colored divisions.
If the dual system is not maintained, of
course, the whole building program would
be completely revised and much OF 1T
abandoned
One certain thing is that the colored
high schools now suffer in comparison
with the white schools in plant, equip
ment and capacity related to enrolment.
Major increase in school population has
been in the colored schools. The only
argument for the dual system that will
stick in the courts is the provision of equal
facilities They are not being provided
now, although the failure is directly at
tributable to sudden population changes
rather than neglect.