lina Congress of Parents and Teach¬
ers. The North Carolina Federation
of Home Demonstration Clubs and
a great many civic groups have ap¬
proved the amendment as being for
the best interest, and advancement,
of public education in North Caro¬
lina.
All Criticisms Considered
Some have criticized different pro¬
visions of the amendment; not the
need for an amendment — because all
agree as to that. Where public criti¬
cism has been made, it has been pub¬
licly answered. It is not the pur|*ose
of this article to recite these criti¬
cisms in detail and answer them. Suf¬
fice it to say that there has not been
a single public criticism of any pro¬
vision of this amendment that was
not made and considered in the thirty
or more days this amendment was
under consideration in the Gonorul
Assembly of 1941. The bill, submit¬
ting the amendment, which was finally
adopted by the General Assembly,
was agreed to by all of its sponsors
and the representatives of all those
organizations advocating the amend¬
ment in the legislature. Here are some
of the organizations that had legisla¬
tive representatives in Hnlcigh fight¬
ing for the passage of the hill, which
submits the amendment, and who
agreed to the hill ns it finally passed;
Tno North Carolina Kducation As¬
sociation; the State Congress of
Parents and Teachers; the State
School Board Association and the
State Grange. In addition to those
organizations, there were a great
many individual laymen and
educators interested in this amend¬
ment, who approved it in its final
form.
The critics of the amendment over¬
look the fact that any proposal to
amend the constitution must run the
gauntlet of legislative enactment. It
is easy enough to sit on the side¬
lines and criticize, hut it is quite dif¬
ferent if you arc carrying the ball.
school people will he saddled in large
part with the responsibility for this
monstrosity, if it should be ratified.
It is clear now that somebody has sold
the school people “a bill of goods.”
The amendment is as different from
what the school people of the state
have been asking for and recommend¬
ing for twenty-five years, as black dif¬
fers from white.
Conflict of Authority
The projKtsed amendment is full of
conflicts of authority, and lawyers
throughout the state are already dis¬
covering these conflicts. If the amend¬
ment should be ratified North Caro¬
lina would have the largest, wordiest,
and vaguest constitutional provision
for a state Imard of education in the
United States. It would have the
largest and most unwieldy state board
of education in the United States. It
would also have a new constitutional
officer, the comptroller, who would in
ull probability be a political appointee
and would have charge of about thirty
million dollars of school funds a year
He would bo n very powerful officer,
with large «lirect or indirect political
influence in the schools.
Another political menace wh it'll the
proposed amendment would causo is
the dangerous extent to which the
schools would be plunged into parti¬
san politics. Danger lurks in the ex¬
traordinary powers which this amend¬
ment confers upon the governor and
also upon the board — even to the
division of the state into a convenient
number of school districts. Under
this power it would be possible for
the hoard to combine one or more
counties into a school district. The
hoard has the power also to provide
for the selection of textbooks. It
would be interesting to know how a
board of 15 members, a majority of
which must be business men and
financiers, could bring high profes¬
sional intelligence ami skill to this
important task.
Advocates of the amendment say
that it will consolidate five hoard's
into one. There is not a word in the
amendment about consolidation. Be¬
sides, four of these boards were
created by the legislature and would
have to be abolished by the legislature.
One of these boards is of very great
importance: the State Board for
Vocational Kducation. If the Federal
Board for Vocational Education
should find that the proposed new
state l«iard of education in North
Carolina is inadequate to meet the
requirements of the federal act for
vocational education, the present
State Board for Vocational Education
( Continued on
роде
twenty-four)
9
WHY I AM AGAINST IT
Rii UR.
ЕПОЛК
H. KNIGHT
THE amendment falls down when
measured bv sound principles of
public educational administra¬
tion. The best thought in this field
insists that the state board of educa¬
tion should be constituted only for
effective educational service for all the
people; that its members should be
appointed from the state at large and
because of their intelligent interest
in and knowledge of public educa¬
tional problems, without restriction
by social, economic, political, or oc¬
cupational status; that the board
should be entirely free and protected
from partisan politics. The proposed
amendment contradicts these princi¬
ples.
It is also dangerously defective in
details. Under this amendment
North Carolina would have a state
board of fifteen members, three of
whom would be state officers, and
twelve appointed by the governor from
congressional districts and confirmed
by the Legislature. A majority of the
entire board must be persons trained
and experienced in business ami
finance and not connected with the
teaching profession or any educa¬
tional administration of the state.
There would be a comptroller, whose
appointment must be approved by the
E?rnor. The measure would *|>eei-
lly discriminate against certain
groups of our citizens for majority
membership on the state Imard of
education.
What the Bill of Rights Provides
Section 7 of Article I of our Bill
of Bights declares that “no man or
set of men are entitled to exclusive
or separate emoluments or privileges
from the community hut in considera¬
tion of public services.” Our con¬
stitution of 1770 showed preference
for men of material possessions and
high station as office holders. But
gradually snobbishness was removed
until there is now nowhere in our
constitution any statement which dis¬
qualifies or restricts any citizen of the
state from office holding because of
his occupational, economic, or pro¬
fessional status. If this amendment
should be ratified it would in effect
restore the ancient projwrty qualifica¬
tions for holding office in this state.
The people of the state have become
alarmed in the past few weeks by dis¬
covering that the amendment is a dan¬
gerous compromise and should never
go into the constitution. Advocates
themselves admit that it is a compro¬
mise. The people arc beginning to
find out that wisdom was compro¬
mised out of the amendment and
folly compromised into the amend¬
ment. They are also finding out that
the amendment is not what they
thought they were getting. And the
