Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 41, Number 70, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 21 May 1909 — Important School Laws Relating to Transfers. [ARTICLE]

Important School Laws Relating to Transfers.

The state legislature of 1907 passed a law requiring a township trustee to close any school where the average attendance was less than twelve, provided roads and streams were such that the children of the district could I>e conveyed to another school. It also provided that the trustee must furnish conveyances for all children between the ages of seven and twelve who lived in such abandoned district and more than one mile from another school. But in their anxiety for centralization they forgot that a district might increase in size as well as decrease, and so made no provision for the reopening of such abandoned schools. The legislature of 1909 saw some of the defects of the centralization plan and passed a law in regard to the re-establishing of these abandoned schools. This law provides that the trustee may re-establish such abandoned schools if he feels assured that the attendance will be twelve or more. It also provides that in any district where a majority of those entitled to vote at a school meeting petition the trustee to re-open an abandoned school, he must do so. From the reading of this it would seem that in any district the patrons might petition the trustee to re-open school, and he would have to re-open it, though there were only three or four scholars, but the attorney-general has ruled that the petitioners must show that the attendance will be twelve or more before they can compel the trustee to re-open the school. The last part seems, open to discussion, however, and it is likely that there will be a test case before it is definitely settled. Another important law passed by the 1909 legislature was in regard to tuition. Heretofore the rates of tuition have been fixed at not more than $1.50 per month in the grades, and $2 in the high school. The per capita expense of running the schools has bepn much more than this in most all cages. For instance, in one of the schools of this township last year the per capita cost was nearly $4, yet the trustee received only $1.50 from those children who were transferred to that school. The new law provides that the rate shall not exceed $2 in the grades and $4 in the high school. This will in most cases nearly pay the expenses of running the schools. The exceptions will be the small schools. The per capita cost of running the city schools, we understand, will not quite take the full amount, yet it will mean an income of between $1,500 and $2,000 more to the city schools from transfers, and the city school board has decided to collect the maximum amount of $4 per month for each pupil from the out townships. Since the legislature repealed all former laws in regard to tuition, the present law will be the one by which settlements will have to be made this year.