The News And Views

A BUSINESSMAN LOOKS AT SCHOOLS

The News and Views subscribes wholeheartedly to the sentiments expressed in the Wilmington Star-News relative to a school bond referendum on May 31.

Wilmington has found itself in relatively the same position as Onslow County, and, as Onslow, has proposed something be done about it.

The Star-News reports:

"I'm going to vote for the school bond issue."

A prominent Wilmington businessman said that last week in the presence of several of his contemporaries. His friends know he is one of the largest taxpayers in the county. Two of them were surprised at his forthright advocacy of the plan to spend $2,993,000 for vitally needed improvements in school facilities. They thought the anticipated small increase in the tax rate would have influenced him to take an opposite stand.

But he explained his position well.

There is no doubt of the need, he said. School officials did not reach into thin air for the figures showing that 131 additional classrooms and allied facilities must be provided here by 1957. Their conclusions were based on birth statistics since World War II. Those figures prove the school population will continue to increase steadily. Meanwhile, new industry is increasing the demands upon the school system, together with those by children from families brought into the Wilmington area as a result of the national defense effort.

This businessman was emphatic in his assertion that the improvements and enlargements must be made if New Hanover's schools are to keep in step with its sensational post-war growth.

Then he clinched his argument in behalf of the bond issue with this statement:

"I have never known a dollar invested for education which didn't bring at least a 100 per cent return to the community.

"Selling is the foundation of my business," he continued. "I find the success of my sales is in direct ratio to the education level of the prospects. We do little business with men who ended their formal education in the lower grades. High school graduates are a good field. And the easiest prospect of all is the college alumnus. Why? Because the more education a man has, the higher his earning ability. The more money he earns, the better the chance are that he will become one of my customers. Education is a real friend to me in my business and whenever I have an opportunity to strengthen it in Wilmington, I'm going to accept that opportunity."

What has the bond issue to do with school standards here?

Plenty!

Crowded, antiquated, make-shift classrooms lower the quality of instruction. Teachers invariably find it harder to study in uncomfortable surroundings. Acute shortages of classrooms in certain schools will mean the movements of many students from their districts to less crowded schools farther away. Unless the bond issue is approved, New Hanover schools will soon be forced to go on double shift, producing inconvenience in many homes and creating an extremely aggravating transportation problem. These and other factors would automatically lower the high quality of our schools, a characteristic of which New Hanover has long been proud.

Wilmington's attraction of new industry is also tied in with the bond issue. Industrialists seeking new plant sites are as interested in schools, churches and recreation for their employees as they are in labor, power supply and other factors. A city with "rundown" schools invariably receives less favor than one keeping its public education standards high.

These are but a few of the situations overwhelmingly in favor of approval of the bond issue.

When the far-sighted citizen of New Hanover adds them up, we're confident he'll agree with the businessman mentioned earlier in this editorial and vote accordingly on Saturday, May 31.