Jasper County Democrat, Volume 22, Number 49, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 17 September 1919 — How It Comes That Political Bosses Control Public School Systems [ARTICLE]

How It Comes That Political Bosses Control Public School Systems

By JACOB M. LOEB,

Chicago Board of Education

To build political systems’ fortunes upon the school system is trafficking in children’s souls. During more than five years of service as school trustee one sees much x>f school boards, something of the public, and very little if any co-opera-tion between the two. To appoint as school trustees men and women unknown and untried is taking a gambler’s chance. To commit the administration of a vast business enterprise to those without experience'or training is poor judgment. To confer upon hucksters the responsibility of preparing budgets, of expending millions, or negotiating leases, of making real estate transfers, is signal improvidence. The public is divided into three classes: The educated, who keep aloof from public questions; the class that can think but and, thirdly, the class that cannot think for itself and accepts the ready-made judgment of others. The latter class is led«by various types—the parlor propagandist, the agitator and the political type and the boss type, more danjgerous and controlling than the others. So we have a public a part qf which is thoughtful but inactive, a part unthinking and directed by vicious leadership.