EDITORIALS
of orange county
THURSDAY, MAY 11, 1961
School revenue plan
is totally indefensible
The boys in the capital corridors over in Raleigh
should have far better information than the humble
hometown reporter. They assure that Gov. Terry San
ford’s $70 million revenue plan for financing his “qual
ity education” program is going to be approved.
But before this purported foregone conclusion be
comes law, The News is anxious to make its stand clear
one more time:
Note these points ...
(1) We support the proposed $70 million educa
tional enrichment program. We believe the money
is. necessary and is going toward a good purpose.
(2) , The people of North Carolina are, we be
-—lieve, willing to pay equitable taxes for this program.
.1 (#).Luxuries should be taxed to finance the pro
gram before necessities are taxed.
(4) It is absolutely inexcusable to place the same
sales .tax limit on the purchase of new (Mack trucks,
huge auto transports, airliners, and busses as applies to
. the purchase of a modest $2,000 family car. Terry
Sanford would do this.
(5) It is totally indefensible to pass a food tax
before every effort has been exhausted to gain all pos
sible revenue from sources such as whiskey and to
bacco, and possibly other luxuries. But Terry San
ford would do this, too. .
Silent on this ..
The Governor and his lieutenants blandly say the
luxury taxes can’t be passed. No doubt, they’re correct,
if tins'is all our leaders are going to try to do to get a
fair tax program passed. (They are cautiously silent,
though, on their blatant appeasement of the trucking
interests!)
If the General Assembly and the people of North
Carolina swallow this bill of tax goods as offered they’re
a mighty gullible pack of sheep!
Financing quality education by taxing food—with
out first exhausting the fairer sources of revenue—is a
sorry means toward a worthy end.
Not*: Your own views on th* opinions expressed above are
invited. If you agree, disagree, or have some additional insight
on this matter you are invited to give th* public th* benefit of
your thinking in a "letter to th* eJitor." Pleas* limit these to
300 words. ■ *»
Continuous progress
teaching idea praised
A milestone in the Chapel Hill School Board’s
continuing effort to better serve the needs of each indi
vidual pupil was passed last week.
The Board voted to institute the un-graded pri
mary school plan in the Carrboro School as of next fall.
Under this system each child will process at , his own
rate according to his needs and ability for what is now
constituted in the first three grades of school.
Carrboro will be the . first school in the County to
put the new plan into full operation and Chapel Hill
will be one of the first systems in the state to move its
public education into this phase.
Lack challenge, attention . . .
Lack of individual attention and the charge that
the pupil does not find enough challenge are the two
most frequent complaints about the public schools. Na
turally a system that is democratically based on equal -
; treatment of all will normally contain some hazards to
excellence.
But the continuous progress system for an un-grad
ed primary school sidesteps this hajiiprd. With only a
modest additional cost for extra book# and teaching ma
terials it provides the extra value of challenge and per
sonal-attention to the individual pupil.
The actual decision on moving toward this plan of
' teaching was made several years ago by the school board.
Since ^hen the '“continuous progress” plain of instruc
t
CONGRESS
UAUNCHING PLATFORM
— WAll Hnrtymulev. t7>r
tion has been instituted in all local schools for read in >
and arithmetic classes. A pilot program for general pri
mary school teaching has been successfully tried at-t.ie
Northside School.
Ahead of trend ...
By converting the first three grades of the Carr
boro School to a general un-graded continuous prog
ress set-up the Chapel Hill schools are in the forefront
of a> national trend toward increasing the effectiveness
of the public schools.
Umstead's bill would
eliminate confusion
The Raleigh News and Observer speaks straight
to the point when it charges that the State Elections
Board’s proposed bill to force college students to vote
_at the home of their parents is ‘‘a way of taking care of
the situation because they (elections officials) are too
lazy to think up a good way.”
The measure'Sgaiffst wttidl"Chapel Hill represen
tatives spoke so effectively, last week is nothing but a
deterrent to democracy.
Like non-Ked oath ...
It’s like a non-communist oath in requiring a stu
dent to sign a pledge that he intends to make his col
lege abode his permanent home if he wishes the right
to vote there. That is—it is totally meaningless. A com
munist would gladly sign a non-communist oath. And
by the same token any student who signed such a> resi
dence pledge to gain a voting right could simply change
his mind later.
Orange County-Rep. John Umstead planned this
week to introduce a« substitute measure that would in
deed eliminate confusion—the aborted intention of the.
elections officials in this matter. Rep. Umstead proposes
to make college students eligible to vote at their col
lege home if they-choose to formally declare it their re
sidence. ~
This is a good bill—and one that Rep. Umstead is
confident will pass. More than that, it will make de
mocracy more democratic. And that is a keystone pur
pose of voting in the first place.
High court calender
should be un-jammed
“The Grand Jury has been made aware of the con
tinuing and increasing backlog of cases to be tried., in
the various sessions of court in this county.”
“Inasmuch as such delay often tends to defeat jus
tire and, in addition, works an undue hardship unon
people called time and again to testify in cases which
are continued to later sessions of court, the Grand Jury
respectfully requests the county commissioners to take
steps to increase the court time ...”
Now that’s a mighty high-flown way of saying
that the superior court dockets are jammed and ought
to be un-jammed.
In last week’s quarterly criminal term of Orange
County Superior Court there were 1tԤ cases on the
calendar—about par for this course. There are general
ly 100 to 140 cases on the printed docket.
Lass than third settled ...
Out of these x 15 less than one-third were settled.
Some have languished on the docket for three and
(Editorials continued on Page, 2)
Newsman's Notepad .. ,
Aycock keeps j
a perspective j
in cage issue J
One of the University of Ncrtll
Carolina’s most ardent sports
fans is Chancellor William B«
Aycock.
Anybody who goes to a Caro*
lina ft loall or basketball game
with Till Aycock knows that his
enthusiasm for his alma mater
and for the university of which
he’s chief administrator is far
more than a debt of loyalty. Ex
citedly and delightedly, he is the
Tar Heels' most ^ enthusiastic
rooter. »
Refreshing it is, to have in
Chancellor Aycock a man so de
Tic ited to the furtherance of
-V'-Mos at the University—and
to the proper place of athletics
at . „ .iversity.
"ii University Coach Frank
McGuire spoke out sharply
while under fire in some quar
ters last winter the Chancellor
quickly and forthrightly stated::
‘‘The coach is speiiking as an
individual and has a right to
express himself. His work, of
course, is highly satisfactory.”
This choice of words was ex
cellent and sincere. The Chan
cellor made clear his personal
and official support of the bas
ketball coach. But he carefully
and conscientiously hewed to his
primary goal as administrator of
an educational institution. To
have said more concerning the
actual McGuire controversy he
would have made himself a di
rect partisan in a controversy
that had no bearing on the basic
aims of a state university. '
Now again Chancellor Aycock
has spoken out—strongly, forth
rightly, and effectively — on the
issue relating to basketball at
the University. Following his per
sonal action in suspending cage
star Doug Moe from the Univer
sity last Thursday the Chancellor
was subject to considerable stu
dent ire.
Although Moe had admitted
accepting a $75 bribe for his !
teammate Lou Brown from a New
York fixer he was found indecent
of any wrong-doing under the
trial rules of the University’s
honor council. What this amount
ed to was that Moe couldn’t be
convicted because of technical
precedents set by the Council
in previous cases.
Chancellor Aycock discovered
that Moe had three times direct
ly lied to him in denying that he
knew anything about the basket
ball scandals. Moe admitted this
when questioned a fourth time
and the Chancellor immediately
suspended him. carefully point
ing out that his decision could
be appealed to the President and
trustees. Moe chose not to do so.
But as the word spread across
the campus hundreds of students
chose to unofficially appeal in a
purported “march” on the chan
cellor’s home. They didn’t have
to. The Chancellor njet them more
than half-way—at the University’s
lower dormitory quadrangle.
At his suggestion they moved to
Gerrard Hall “where we can all
-sit down and talk this thing over.”
Speaking Informally for more
than a half-boar, the Chancel
lor won the respect of the ha*
dents. “The first thesis of oar
honor system Is that every sin
gle person here is a student
first and anything else second.'*
he said. “In nil Judgments am
Drag Moe we considered him
a student first and an athlete
t :v..