The Bismarck Tribune

An Independent Newspaper
The state's oldest
Newspaper
(Established 1873)
paper.
Published by The Bismarck Tribune Company. Bismarck, N. D., and entered at the postoffice at Bismarck as second class mail matter.
GEORGE D. MANN
President and Publisher
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Schools and the Taxpayer
Bismarck has been visited recently by delegations of citizens from so-called "school towns" in the state intent on protecting the interests of institutions threatened with adverse action at the hands of the legislature.
Thus there is again placed in issue the whole question of our system of higher education. Next to the operation of the common schools this is the most important function of the state government, for upon the success of our schools and colleges we stake a great deal of the future.
Whatever tendency may exist to approach the question in a belligerent mood should be discounted. There is no need for fighting in considering this issue. It can be solved properly only by an open-minded approach on the part of all persons interested.
First of all, it should be definitely determined just what the various interests are and ascertain if they really are conflicting. Clarification of that matter will do much to take the heat out of the entire issue.
Whatever opposition there may be to continued operation of our state teachers colleges is based upon the idea that they constitute too heavy a burden for the taxpayer, that the path to financial salvation leads to curtailment of expenses and the axe has to be applied somewhere.
Bolstering this is the condition at the state hospital for the insane, jammed to the windows with inmates who are handicapped because of crowded conditions. Either this institution must be further expanded or some other place for certain types of patients must be found. There is logic in the suggestion that, if one or more institutions serve no good purpose on the present basis, their buildings might properly be used for other purposes than those of education.
Opposed to this movement in all of its ramifications are two important classes of people.
First among these are the parents of children who wish to attend these institutions as they now are being operated. The presence of a school nearby has made it possible for more than one boy or girl to obtain instruction above high school grades which would have been denied them had they been forced to go farther away from home. They insist and quite properly-that educational opportunity is guaranteed by the constitution and that it would be a backward step to reduce our educational facilities at a time when a trained and intelligent citizenry is the greatest need of the state and nation.
Of secondary interest is the position of businessmen who would find themselves discommoded if not damaged by the closing of an institution or any major change in the character of its activities. They are entitled to consideration but their interests pale into insignificance when compared with those of the young man or woman who feels the need for additional information and a broader outlook and is denied them.
The need for a sympathetic approach is demonstrated when one considers the fact that the parents of children very frequently are taxpayers, too. So are the business interests which rise in defense of the present system.
It is rather obvious that there is small reason for continuing our system of higher education on exactly the same basis as at present. Changes are in order and have long been overdue. We must train our young folks not only to be teachers but to take other positions in life. In fact, it would seem reasonable to change the character of some of our institutions. Their usefulness should be enhanced, rather than reduced.
Each one of them should offer a junior college course which would fit a student for entrance into the junior year at either of our two major institutions. Some of them might properly be abandoned as teachers colleges, devoted to junior college work exclusively. If the financial stress justifies further curtailment of appropriations, provisions might be made for charging tuition or of inducing local governments, whose residents are especially benefited, to join in their support.
There is nothing sacrosanct about the institutions as such, but the principle of educational opportunity is sacred. If we abandon it we forsake something which has contributed greatly to the advancement of our state and nation.