Lewistown Gazette

EDUCATIONAL.

J. K. Hartzler, Belleville, Mifflin County, Editor.

For the Educational Column.

A parsimonious policy, in education, is poor economy, and a wasting expense. Good schools are the cheapest things in the market. So are good teachers. Poor schools are the dearest, for they are not only a waste of money, but of much valuable time and life. The more money we have the better teachers we can secure, and as a consequence, we shall have better schools. -R. I. Schoolmaster

The demand for teachers is at present greater than the supply. The people are learning that they must pay "good wages for good work" in the school as well as in the shop. This is one of the most cheering signs of the times, and we are happy to see that almost everywhere the salary of the teacher is advancing. -Report of State Supt. of Wisconsin.

The School Tax.

The slaveholders' rebellion would never have been inaugurated, had the people of the South for the past thirty years, believed in the payment of a liberal school tax; and it would never have been crushed, had the people of the North and the West during the same period, refused the payment of said tax for the education of the masses. Had a good common school system been adopted throughout the southern States thirty years ago, the nation would not today stagger under her heavy debt of three billions. No intelligent citizen can longer deny that the school tax is the best tax, the most remunerative as well as the most important, that he is called upon to pay. Far better than an investment in five twenties, excellent as that may be, is the payment of a generous school tax. For many years our leading educators and other close and intelligent observers have in some degree appreciated the great blessings which this particular tax was conferring upon us as a nation. But not even these men could know the full value of the investment which we of the North had been making from year to year, until the hour of sore trial came, and our nation was plunged into a protracted civil war. Other and heavier taxes we have paid to meet current demands upon the public treasury, but this tax has proven the seed corn which has multiplied itself ten thousand fold, for it was the abiding influence of the Common School that saved the nation. And in preserving our nationality, who will pretend to estimate the blessings it has conferred, not only upon ourselves as a people, but upon the human race the wide world over!

When therefore, we have found this investment to pay so handsome a dividend, what better policy can we adopt than to increase our annual instalments? It is the part of wisdom to reap the full benefits which this tax is able to confer. Towards this rational view of the matter, popular sentiment is steadily "marching on." Parents see more clearly than ever before that it is better, far better, to expend a part of their means upon the education of their children than to give them a few additional acres or bequeath them a few hundred dollars more in their wills. They have learned that property may be lost, that wealth may take to itself wings, oftentimes leaving the bankrupt wretchedly poor and utterly hopeless, but that a good education, backed by a reasonably good degree of energy, is a cash capital which can neither be lost nor stolen. And since the public schools are open to all, this large class of patrons is desirous that they shall be rendered as efficient as any other schools made prominent by private enterprise.

The time was-nor is the period very remote-when the "blind public" grumbled at the payment of a tax much lower than is now paid willingly-in many cases gladly. The beggarly pittance paid the teacher but a few years ago, has been increasing until in some localities it fairly deserves the name of salary. Salaries double and treble those formerly paid, are now advertised in many directions, and the profession of teaching is taking a more dignified rank since teachers themselves are better qualified, and the public is growing into a better appreciation of the true character of their labors.

But the school tax in most parts of the country, is still far below what the importance of this interest demands, and whatever other taxes may go lower, because of a decrease in the national debt or a reduction of the national expenditure, this must continue to go higher, in order that we may build better school houses, furnish them with better appliances of teaching, secure the services of a more devoted and better qualified class of instructors, and carry our common school system, of noble capacity and richest promise, to a far higher degree of efficiency. -Lancaster Evening Express.