Unsettled Questions in the Organization and Administration of the Schools

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Excerpt from Unsettled Questions in the Organization and Administration of the Schools: An Address There are certain fundamentals of the American educational system which, it may well be said, are settled. They are settled by common thinking and universal acceptance, by legislative sanction and judicial determination. They are looked upon as the necessary basis of our political system, as the essential support, guardian and guide of a democratic form of government. Some matters settled It is settled first or all, for example, that our schools are to be free. They are to be supported at the common cost. All property is to contribute its share. They are to be open to all. There is to be nothing about them to which any may justly object on conscientious grounds. They are to be managed and their particular character and accommodations determined and provided by the people in primary assemblages or by officers chosen by the people. It is accepted that they are subject to the legislative power in each state because they are supported by taxation and the power of taxation is a sovereign power which can be exercised only by the Legislature. The legislative power which levies taxes must account for the manner in which the revenues are used. This logically results in very considerable legislative control and direction over the schools, but the local interest in the schools is so great and so jealous of prerogative that the legislative powers go only to general and vital principles, while the real organizing, housing and administration of the schools are, and are likely to remain, local. It is settled that the power of the state shall undertake to assure a suitable school within accessible distance of every home and that each local community shall elaborate and embellish its particular school as far as the majority rule will authorize or permit. It is settled that there shall be a free high school in every considerable town and a free university in every state unless an endowed university is already upon the ground and in some measure meets the public needs. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.