Evening star., 1951-12-03
Nothing Illegal About IT.

II Adebert w. Lee, vice president of the
Board OF Education and chairman of its person.
mel committee, had been selling chalk or black
boards to the school system at profit-instead
OF selling insurance of various sorts to school
principals at prof1t-he would be in violation
of the law.
There is technical difference between the
appropriated funds used by the school system to
purchase supplies however, and the funds used
oy school principals to buy insurance in connec-
tlon with their administration of school cafe
terlas and other such non governmental business
activities In sense, of course these latter
funds are public funds. The money involved is
not the personal property of the school principals
unless the insurance bought is personal in
surance.
Whatever the fine distinction between
legality and illegality may be in this case, it is
of relatively small Importance Mr.. Lee would
not knowingly violate any law. What Mr. Lee
has done is unethical under any normal concept
OF rectitude in public service, though it may not
De illegal. AS an aggressive and highly opinion
ated chairman of the boards personnel commit
tee committee that conducts most of its
operations in secret, Mr.. Lee is in position to
influence the professional fate of school per-
sonnel. There should OF course be no business
relationships or the solicitation of business
favorS between him and the school principals
If Mr.. Lee sees nothing wrong in soliciting
and selling insurance to the school principals
while serving in his position on the Board of
Educaton If Board President C. Melvin Sharpe
sees nothing wrong in it-and that is their
announced position-it is not hard to trace the
source of the difficulties that have beset once
highly respected Board of Education since it
has come under the leadership of these two men.
The explanation of the secret QUESTIONABLE to
school officials, for example, with its biased and
loaded questions and the highly unethical pro-
cedures implied by its use, becomes as clear as
crystal.
It is with some reluctance that The Star
has injected its own opinions and expressed it's
own indignant criticism, on the Board of Educa-
tion'S methods of discharging its important
function of choosing a Superintendent of
Schools. For many reasons, the Board of Edu-
cation should go about this task without any
suggestion of public pressure. The Star has not
expressed any opinion as to whether DR. Corning
should be reappointed nor has it attempted to
pass judgment on his competence beyond men,
tioning his good professional standing and
siX-year record in Washington of which he has
no reason to be ashamed. The judgment of his
competence is, of course, the responsibility of
the Board Of Education.
But any fair-minded person should resent
the public badgering, the small and mean at
tempts to humiiate the Superintendent of
Schools, the pettifoggery and the pompous
preoccupation with administrative detail that
have marked the conduct of the Board of Edu-
cation under President Sharpe and Vice Presi-
dent Lee. 1t should be resented not merely
because Of its effect on the Superintendent of
Schools but because of its effect on the public
school system a whole, the morale of the
teachers who serve it and the welfare of the
children who attend it. School business and
what goes on In the school system are the publics
business.
The resignation of President Sharpe and
Vice President Lee would benefit the school
system more than change of superntendents.