City School Systems in the United States (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated.1885 Excerpt: ... To this vital question the superintendent is able to give no satisfactory answer, as he finds that the funds at the disposal of the board are only sufficient to defray the current expenses of the schools; and he strongly deprecates the proposition to save money for buildings by reducing the salaries of teachers. Many other cities might be cited where the schools are suffering from insufficiency of accommodations; but insufficiency is believed to be the exception and not the rule. The city of Denver deserves to be mentioned as an example of a very young city of marvellously rapid growth of population, which has courageously and successfully met the demand for school accommodations sufficient for all its schoolable children, and in quality these accommodations, as has been stated elsewhere, are of the first order. Among the cities of the first order St. Louis may be mentioned as one which has successfully grappled with the problem of school accommodations. In a recent report the president of the board states that the funds of the board "are ample for all necessary school accommodations required now or in the near future. There is now, happily, no question of the financial ability of the board to provide all necessary school facilities." The school law of Massachusetts, as already stated under another head, empowers school boards to provide needed temporary accommodations if their request for the same is not complied with by the municipal authorities. This provision of the statutes has proved a sure guarantee against the evil of insufficiency of accommodations. Where the school board is invested with such authority, it is never necessary to limit attendance to the capacityof the school-houses erected or to submit to the evil of chronic overcrowding. In Bost...