Moy26, 1934
THE STATE
Роде
Twenty- five
NORTH Carolina
has just passed
through n year
of “noble experiment”
which appears to have
worked to a point where
it need no longer be cata¬
logued in the experi¬
mental class.
I refer to the eight
months’ state supported
school system.
We have had other
“noble experiments" m
the past Outstanding
among them was the one
which had to do with
the enforcement of pro¬
hibition in the United
States. Tt was abandoned
as a national policy. So far as North
Carolina's “experiment” is concerned,
however, present indications arc that
our people intend to see that it re¬
mains in full effect.
The 1933 legislature took under
North Carolina’s official wings every
public school in the state and guaran¬
teed to it an eight months term with¬
out one cent of taxes levied on the
homes of its pupils or the farms of
their fathers. This bold stroke made
other states of the Union blink and
gulp. Of course, the thing did not get
played up like kidnappings, a machine
gun battle, a divorce in high-up movio
circles or the story of some unusual
sex perversion: however, it appealed
to the brains of thoughtful Americans
in other states as well as in North
Carolina and the results of the first
year of this experiment were watched
with interest.
A Reduction in Costs
The cost of operating North Caro¬
lina’s first state-supported term was
something like $18,000,000 of which
$16,000,000 had been set aside in the
budget. The rest came from court fines
and forfeitures, but none from a direct
property tax. In other words, the
homos that are sold for taxes next
year or jeopardized for judgments for
delinquent taxes will not be sold or
otherwise levied against in order to
keep up the schools. Education is now
strictly the business of the state and
the state is attending to it.
If the eight months state-supported
term fails, then what?
Have you ever thought about that?
If we have to revert to some other
system of tax levying, against what
are these taxes to be levied?
NORTH CAROLINA’S
“NOBLE EXPERIMENT”
- By WILLIAM H. RICHARDSON -
NORTH CAROLINA hos just brought to
о
close its first
year of state supported schools for an eight-months' term.
Mr. Richardson, in the accompanying article, tells of some
of the things which have been accomplished and which
may be expected in the future.
This article is in no sense a discus¬
sion of the merits of the sales tax —
pro or con. If the sales tax ever be¬
comes as burdensome as the old prop¬
erty tax which bore down on our body
politic and on our social and economic
structure like the Empire State Build¬
ing on a feather bed, then it ought
to be consigned to the same bottom¬
less pit into which its nefarious
predecessor was tossed by a nervous
but determined General Assembly. A
properly tax for state purposes just
won’t do. If the sales tax fails, then
there must be something else.
Two Schools of Thought
When the General Assembly met
here in 1933, there were two schools
of thought. One was determined to
abolish the property tax levies at any
cost. The other paramounted taking
over the public schools for eight
months. Cross currents surged back
and forth between and within the two
branches of the legislature. Governor
Ehringhaus was known to bo in favor
of taking the tax burden off farms
and homes; ho also was known to he
a staunch advocate of public educa¬
tion. In him then the two schools
of thought had a common meeting
ground. With him education and its
promotion constituted no “nohlc ex¬
periment,” but a universal need. He
declared against the continuation of
the home confiscating property tax;
he was opposed to the principle of
the sales tax. At the same time, he
realized that North Carolina stood at
the cross roads; and on a certain
night, speaking from a sick bed, ns it
were, he uttered a shibboleth that
opened the way to a solution which
was agreed upon some time later. It
is plain to the casual
observer that Governor
Ehringhaus is committed
to no tax scheme ns a
permanent policy which
would prove more ab¬
horrent than illiteracy.
It is equally plain that
he does not intend to
sacrifice education on
the altar of expediency.
What the next legisla¬
ture will do about the
furure support of schools
is, of course, not known.
But one thing would np-
pear certain and that is
that the legislators will
not throw the schools
back into the laps of lo¬
calities to support with locally levied
and locally collected taxes on farms
and homes. Whether the sales tax will
l>c retained is also problematical.
Whether a more universal income tax
or whether foreign stocks are taxed
may likewise be classed as doubtful.
But the schools will continue to be
state supported. That fact apparcntly
is outstanding.
During the past year, according to
reasonably accurate figures, the total
enrollment in North Carolina was ap¬
proximately 1,000,000 with a daily
average attendance of 800.000. It cost
$16,000.000 to $ IS, 000, 000 to keep
these children in school for eight
months as compared with the peak ex¬
penditures of approximately $30,000,-
000 in 1029. In other words, a reduc¬
tion of $12,000,000. As it now is,
every child in North Carolina can go
to school eight months out of every
year and the state will pay for it.
As it was in 1929, they went from
six to nine months but at costs vary¬
ing from reasonably high taxes to
levies which although they provided
schooling deprived many of their
homes.
It is interesting to note that «lur¬
ing the past year the state of North
Carolina transported approximately
250,000 children to and from school
daily; in 4,000 busses in routes ag¬
gregating 115,000 miles. This number
equalled one-sevontli of all children
transported in school busses through¬
out the United States, with Indiana
following North Carolina in the num¬
ber of children hauled.
The Cost of Trucks
More significant than interesting
perhaps is the fact that thesp North
( Continued on page thirty)