epartnenl of Pnblk Schools
PROF. J. T. SMITH, EDITOR.
LOCAL TAXATION FOR PUBLIC EDUCATION.
Letter From J. Y. Joyner, Superintendent Public
Instruction, Which Should Be Of Interest to
Stokes County People.
Under Motion 4115 of the Pub
lic School Law of North Carolina,
upon a petition of one fourth of
the freeholders residing therein, a
special tax diatriot may be laid off
within aLy definitely fixed boun
daiies, and upon approval of the
said petition by the County Board
of Education, an election upon a
special tax for the support of
schools within that district, not to
exoeed thirty oents on the hun
dred dollars valuation of property
and ninety cents on the poll, must
be ordered by the Board of Coun
ty Commissioners. If a majority
of the qualified voters vote for the
special tax. said tax must be an
nually levied and the funds aris
ing frotn it must be placed to the
credit of said special tax district,
and be subject to the order of
the sohool committee of said spec
ial tax district, for the benefit of
the public schools of the district.
An election, therefore, upon'j,local
taxation for the improvement of
its public schools is thus placed
within easy reach of any school
district in North Carolina. The
funds raised from this source are
of course in addition to all funds
apportioned to the district from
the general State and county fund.
Blanks for petitions aud elec
tion returns will be furnished
upon application to the State or
county Superintendent of Public
Instruction.
1 HE NEED OF IT.
This business of public educa
tion is like any other great busi
ness, For successfully conduct
ing it enough capital must be in
vested in it to supply the neces
sary equipment and to employ the
necessary number of competent,
trained men and women to carry
on the busimss according to mod
ern, progress. business and pro
fessional principles. Comparative
statistics show that North Carolina
is still behind most of her sister
■States in teachers' salaries, in
length of school terms, in value of
school houses and equipment, and
in geneial expenditures for school
purposes. The average school
term in the rural schools of North
Carolina is 86 days. The average
monthly salary of rural wLite
teachers is $30.24; the average an
nual salary is $130.07.
For better houses and equip
ment, better teachers and more of
them, better supervision and long
er school term, more money is the
fundamental need. The constitu
tional limit of general State and
county taxation has already been
reached in all the counties of the
State but one. A special annual
State appropriation of §200,000
has alrea ly been made by the
General Assembly to provide a
four months' school term. It is
evident,-therefore, to any reason
able man, that the only practical
means of further increasing the
school fund of uny local school is
special local taxation. Practically
all other £ tates and all the com
munities of this State that have
provided educational facilities ad
equate iu buildings and equip
ment, length of term, number of
teachers, salary and qualification
of teachers and course r>f instruc
tion to meet the demands of the
age fur tli« education of all the
ohildren, have been compelled to
reeort to special looal taxation to
supplement the funda reoeived
from general taxation. Mora than
69 per cent, of all the funds raised
for public schools in the United
States is raised by looal taxation.
In some States, like Massachu
setts, having the best-equipped
public schools, mere than 95 per
cent, of the funds is raised by lo
cal taxation. In North Carolina,
| the only cities, towns anil rural
communities that have succeeded
in providing a system of schools,
open eight or ten mont'is in the
year, adequately equipped with
houses and teachers, have been
compelled to supplement their
State and county school funds by
local taxation. The experience of
other States and of these commu
nities in our own State compels,
thereiore, the conclusion that the
only hope of largely increasing;
the present available funds ior ru
ral schools, and thereby making
these schools equal to the de-1
mands of the age for tie education
of 82 per cent, of our population
dwelling in the country is to be
found in the adoption of local
taxation.
POPULARITY AND SUCCESS
OF IT IN NORTH CAR
OLINA.
In 1900 there were in North
Carolina only 30 local tax districts
and in 1907 there are 450 local
tax districts. Three hundred and
sixty-seven of these ar„ rural dis
tricts or incorporated villages of
not more thani five or six hundred
iahabitants. About one unndred
of these have been established
within the past twelve months.
All the cities, larger towns and
most of the larger villages of this
State have adopted local taxation.
These local tax districts are scat
tered from the seashore to the
mountains and are IO be found in
all counties of the State except 12.
No town or district, after having
given local taxation a fair trial,
has, so far as I know, ever aban
doned it parmanently. A few that
abandoned it temporarily readop
ted it after a few years. The com
munities that have adopted it will
be found, as a rule, the most pro
gressive and prosperous. These
progressive communities, some of
which have been bearing this ad
ditional burden of taxation for
more than 20 years, would not
continue voluntarily to bear it if
they had not found that it paid
financially, intellectually, and mor
ally. Local taxation would not
have spread so rapidly among a
conservative people like ours if
the success of it had not been de
monstrated in the object-lessons
of the communities that have
adopted in.
SOME OF THE BENEFITS
OF IT.
1. It pr )vides more money for
better houses anil equipment,
longar terms, more teachers, better
salaries, better teachers and better
schools.
2. More mid better teachers and
longer terms make p ssible better
graduation and classification, mora
rapid adnnoaiotnt, and mora
thorough and axte iaira instruct
ion.
3. Preparation for oollage, or
batter preparation for life, through
high sohool training, may thoa be
obtained for all ohildren at home
under the moat favorable environ
ment at rauoh leas aftpenae than
each preparation oonld he obtain
ed for only a few ohildren of the
community at preparatory board
ing-school* ont of the community.
4. Good schools provided by lo
cal taxation are the beat induce
ment to the best oitizena to remain
in a community where they can
get the best advantagea for the
education of their ohildren at
home, and the beat advertisement
for the best olass of immigranta
from other communities and
ether States to beoome residents
of such a community. The tide of
immigration and of prosperity
flows from ignorant communities
with poor schools to intelligent']
communities with good schools.
5. Every cent of money, there-,
fore, invested by local taxation in*
a better school, byjnviting a betv
• V & f
ter class of immigrants and pre T
y
venting the disastrous drain upon'
the best blood of the community
by other communities with better
facilities, enhances the value of
every cent of property in tha
community by increasing the de
mand for renting and purchasing
it by the best people.
6. Every cent of money raised
by local taxation for schools by
any community remains in the
community for the improvement
of the community schools, and is
invested, through better schools,
in thv, minds, souls and characters
of the rising generation, thereby,
increasing the general intelligence
and efficiency of the entire com
munity, and elevating its churacter
intellectually and morally.
7. It stimulates local pride and
self-help; it cultivates self-reliance
independence, public spirit and
cooperative effort; it makes the
oommunity feel that tlu sohool is
distinctly the community's school
as well as the school of the State
and county.
8. It ties closer to the school in
pride and interest every man that
pays an additional cent of school
tax, makes him feel more keenly
his individual responsibility and
his individual right to have bis
child in school, aud quickens his
natural instinct to get the worth
of his money by sending bis child
to school.
9. By providing longer terms,
better equipment, and better \
schools, it increases attendance!
and inspires public confidence.
10. It is the cheapest and best
way to educate any child, beciiuse
it provides for his education at
home, under the restraining in
fluence of home environment and
in associntion and sympathy with
the children of I is home commu
nity. It is the only way to pro
vide for the adequate education of
all of the children. For less than
it would cost the biggesttay-payer
in almost any special local tax
(Continued on pag > 15.)
Winston is the Large Center Tobacco Market,
and when you go to Winston
W ER The Big Axe
Is the Large Clothing Center.
It wiU pay you to see us before you buy*
0
\ ,
INUFF SED. COME.
AT THE BIG AX
v cms. N. PHELPsa co.
WHEN IN WINSTON
Buy Your Shoes of
LASH M IT
A Little Saved On Every Pair.
Sain Johnson, a Stokes County boy,
here to wait on you.
THE J. W. HESTER CO.
441-443 TRADE ST., WINSTON, N. C.
The store that sells a little of everything
at money-saving prices. We are now re
ceiving one of the largest stocks of
Dress Goods, Coat Jackets
and Millinery
we ever carried. It will pay you to see
our line before buying elsewhere.
Don't fail to see the money-savers in our
Grocery, Tinware, Glassware and Crock
ery Departments.
THE J. W. HESTER CO.