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^ • % r ■MM Thursday, November 8, 1956 THE CLINTON CHRONICLE £ Pajfe Nine ABOUT OUR SCHOOLS How Schools Are Financed By G. N. FOY, Asst. Supt. School in District 56 Down through .the years our schools in America have been re ferred to habitually as “free pub lic schools.” It has generally been the case, and still is, that no tuition, registration fee, or any thing of that sort is charged against school pupils and required to be paid by the parents. But *our schools are far from be ing charitable institutions. The The public school system in the .United States represents $ gigan tic investment and a stupendous operating expense which is paid through the medium of taxation by the citizens of the country. But it gives us pause to realize that our school system, as big as it is, is far from being what it would have to be if all our young people attended school and remained in school as.long as they should. In 1950, 36,846 children entered school in the first grade in South Carolina. When these same chil dren entered the eighth grade in 1947, the number had dwindled to 19,199, then, when that class i chronologically came to the 12th grade in 1952, the number was only 11,370, then still later in 1953 only 3,048 of these entered col lege in South Carolina. So, as large as our public school system is, it is far from what it would have to be if it served all our young people for as long as they should be in school. Drop-outs especially reduce the need for upper elementary and high school facilities, as well as the need for instructional personnel, while re peaters increase those same needs. Ottention is called to the above conditions to show that if our schools served their full pur pose to all youth, then more school buildings, more teachers and more of everything else re quired by the schools would! be necessary. The requirement for more teachers increases each year while teachers seem to get more scarce each year. The shortage of teachers is alarming and it is as tounding that the average age of teachers in this state has increas ed eighteen years during an 18- year period,, that is since 1938. This means that very few young teachers have been coming into the profession and that most of those teachers coming In are above the average age of the teachers whom they replaced. In a previous article the two methods of financing new school buildings, namely, bond issues .and the 3% sales tax, and a gen eral account of the building pro gram in Laurens County School District No. 56 were discussed. The main concern here is with the sources fo funds used in de fraying the operating or running expenses of the school district. The special school tax levies in the districts in Laurens County are fixed by the Legislative Dele gation and incorporated in the county supply bill esich year. The Board of Trustees each year dur ing the session of the General As sembly submits a budget giving a detailed estimate of necessary school expenditures for tjie fol lowing school year The Legisla tive Delegation studies this school budget and, taking into consider ation the assessed valuation in the district, sets the special school levy so as to provide the funds which are needed over and abpve what the district expects to re ceive ^rom state and federal aid. There are four main sources of income for school operation: j (1) Income from local taxes : levied on property within the school district. (2) Income from state aid to the district derived from taxes levied by the state. (3) Income from federal-state funds for vocational instruction, namely, agriculture, home eco nomics, distributive education. (4) Miscellaneous incomR. -First the income from local tax es for operating expenses with- ! in the district for the year 1955- 56 was $130,115.32. This was in come on a 22 mill tax levy on a total assessed valuation of $5,- 805,830.00 within the district, from poll taxes, dog taxes, delin quent taxes and penalties Sec ond the income from state aid for teachers salaries was $310,133.43, from state aid for supervision and overhead was $20,125.00. State aid for maintenance and operation was $20,125.00. State aid for su pervision and overhead is spec ial aid by the state for the pur pose of supplementing adminis trative and supervisory salaries or defraying other special super vision expenses while state aid for maintenance and operation is special aid for janitorial service YOU PAY NO MORE FOR HOME LOAN SERVICE HERE The wide experience of our home loan people, who know and understand local conditions, is at your service when you finance here. We’re special' ists in home-financing. And you'll find that our method of financing often means extra savings, too. When you're ready to buy or build —come in and see us. jAND LOAN ASSOCIATION A Clinton Institution Serving Clinton People Since 1909 Telephone No. • Support Your Local Chamber of Commerce I Now Availoble We now have crews available to take care of your Plumbing, Heating and Electrical Repair needs. Call Num ber 4 for prompt and efficient ser vice. MEMBER NATIONAL ASSOCIATION miMBINC CONTBACTORS qou/l GlWlGKCC r * T.C Johnson Co. TELEPHONE 4 and other maintenance and ope ration expense such as janitors supplies, etc. Third, total fed eral-state matching aid to.t>^e dis trict was $10,013.88. Fourth, mis cellaneous income frojn all other sources amounted to $4,385 65. All four sources of income totalled $494,898.28 which was the amount available to meet all expenses for 1955-56. A percentage breakdown showing the per cent from each source is as follows: .From local taxes 27%; from state aid for sal aries, supervision and mainte nance 70%; and from federal- state matching and miscellaneous sources combined 3.7c. From this i\ is apparent that the local tax payers defray slightly morel than *4 of local school expense while the state, together with a small amount) from federal aid, defrays almost" three-fourths of local school district expense. All local taxes are collected by the County Treasurer who cred its the school district with the amount which the special school tax levy yields. All state and federal aid is also sent to the County Treasurer who credits the school district with the amounts sent from these sources. Then, when the school district requires funds to meet its monthly expens es, the district submits a claim to the County Treasurer signed by the trustees for these neces sary funds. When the claim is submitted at the treasurer’s office and properly endorsed, the treas urer issues a cheek to the district in exchange for the claim. This check is endorsed by the superin tendent and deposited in a local bank. Teachers’ salaries and all school expensse are then paid by check, so where tax money is con cerned no actual cash is handled and every financial transaction is a matter of written record. The school maintains a modern book keeping system and the books are audited by an accounting firm at the close of each school year and this report is a matter of public record, a copy of each audit be ing, placed in the public library at Presbyterian college. There is considerable sentiment throughout the state in favor of an overhauling of property as sessments, that is, the setting of more equitable values on proper ty for tax purposes. There is also considerable sentiment in favor of having the state take full re sponsibility for the payment of teachers salaried. At the present time, the state gives aid on teach ers salaries according to the teacher’s type of certificate snd •length of experience, and it is very common practice throughout the state for the districts to sup plement the state aid and this puts the districts more or less In competition with each other. Some districts with a higher per pupil assessed valuation or' with a higher tax levy are naturally able to pay a better supplement than those less wealthy districts or those with a lower levy. So the better teachers gravitate in general to those districts which pay the greater supplement. % School now handle a consider able amount, of money other than tax money-, such as funds in con nection with lunch rooms, ath letics, student activities, student insurance, book rental funds, and various other things. Basic rec ords are kept in connection with all these things in Laurens Qeun- ty School District No. 56, and the transfer of funds from person to person is recorded by receipts and final disbursements are made by check lo those persons furnish ing the services or supplies in volved. Every effort is made to conduct the financial affairs of the district in a business-like manner so that at all times a true and full accounting may be made for both receipts and expendi tures in connection with funds derived from either taxes or from other activities. High Percentage 01 Church Members At Winthrop College Rock Hill, Oct. 29—Over 99 per cent, of the students at Winthrop ] college are church members, a survey at the Sout^i Carolina col lege for women ha’s revealed. Of the 1,036 students at Win throp, 1,034 are church affiliated, leaving only 19 per cent without church affiliation. This is the highest percentage of church members to be recorded at Win throp since the survey began some years ago. Last year’s pre vious all-time high showed 38 per cent as non-chureh members. Of the church members, 87 7 per cent belong to three denomi national groups—Baptist, Metho dist and Presbyterian A total of 454, or 43 8 per cent of the entire student body, are members „of the Baptist church Methodists are second with 287 students, or 27.7 per cent. The third ranking Presbyterians t&- tal 166, or 15 per cent. The three leading denomina tions combined claim 907 stu dents. Sixteen denomiantions are rep resented by the students. Only two indicated that they have no church affiliation. The complete tabulation by de nominations is listed below: Baptist, 454 students; Metho*- dists, 287; Presbyterians, 166; Episcopal, 39; Lutheran, 35; As sociate Reformed Presbyterian, £0; Roman Catholic, 20; Christian, 2; Church of God, 2; Greek Or thodox, 2; Assembly of God, 2; Pentecostal Holiness, 1; Mormon, 1; Gospel Chapel, 1; Evangelical United Brethren, 1; Congrega tional, 1. Hodge Shoots Negro Neor Princeton ^ • Laurens, Nov. 3—A white man listed as W. E. Hodge, was, ar rested Saturday following the pis tol shooting of Robert Earl Reid, a 23-.ye«r-old Negro near Princeton. The shooting occurred about 11 a. m. today in front of Hodge’s filling station and grocery store dn highway 25. Laurejis county Sheriff W. A. Lowery said Reid died within a few minutes after a bullet struck him in his head and another in his arm The sheriff said that Hodge told him that Reid was cursing in the store in the presence of Mrs. Hodge and some customers, and he ordered the Negro from the premises. Hodge said that Reid continued cursing outside the store and he shot him with a 22 calibre pistol, the -sheriff said Hodge told him. ' ■ » When he arrived on the scene, the sheriff said he» found Reid slumped under the steering wheel of an automobile. Five witnesses who were with Reid in the car told the sheriff that Reid was in the car when Hodge shot him. Coroner Joe F. Smith- said he had set the inquest for Nov. 8 at 11 a. m. at the former Brewington school house. - Hodge later today was released on $2,000 bond. The Everyday Counselor By Dr. Herbert Spaufh The dtdest and most danger ous weapon is the tongue. In the Bible it appears first in the story in the Garden of Eden and has had continuous and destructive use ever since. It has been said that the good Lord created Us with two ears, two eyes, and one mouth,and they should be used in that proportion. As one digests that stateme’ht, the impact is terrific. Each one of us could profitably face the ques tion, Do I really see and hear twice as much as I say? The red skinned Indian of the New World used two methods of close com munication; first, his sign lang uage called “the straight tongue,'* and later from the w-hite man he learned “the crooked tongue.” What mental and even phy- sioal pain and death has been brought about as the. result of the crooked tongue! The spoken word once uttered, either in pleasure or 'anger can never be un-said Apology and retrac tion may ease the' situation, but the fact remains—the word was said! How m|any of us have lashed out words in anger that later we would give almost anything not to have said! Strangely enough, we usually say them to someone very dear to us. We often drive those cruel words out as savagely, and viciously as we would thrust a dagger. •, ‘ r The dagger might miss a vital organ, ^but the vicious word never. It drives swiftly and truly to the most vital of our organs, the inner heart The pain these dagger words cause is far greater than that of cold steel. Extreme physical pain is anesthetized by uncon sciousness, but the mental an guish of cruel words is not. The pain is greater each time the mind drives them into the heart. The mind is prone to continue to repeat those awful words again and again. We instinctively 'defend our selves physically. Should Jan ob ject be thrust before one s eye, the eyelids automatically close. During a physical attack we as sume a defensive posiiton But there is no protection against the spoken word. . - • A surface incision will heal, but the sore from a word will fester as the word is recalled Truly, this is a horrible weapon to use against fellowmen!. The hunter who will never point his gun at anything he doesn’t intepd to kill may ruth lessly ruin a human with angry words and allow hrs victim to crawl away in suffering The gracious hostess, with idle gos sip, will ensnare her guest in a word trap and leave her there to starve The writer of love stories with his flare for fictional words and situations may lead many an in nocent youth beyond the notmal path of life into the wilderness of animalism. Even children in all their innocence will strike out against their fellows * with knife-like words, imitating their elders The pen may be mightier than the sword, but at least the writ ten-word is usually not personal. and seldom i^sed toward those! wqrd word remains to haunt and the'prayer of ‘he Psalmist. “Set we love. ’ The! written word can ; to hurt. - a* 5 watch. O Lord, before my be destroyed, but the spioker* Daily all of us neeijt to utter mouth keep the door oflmy lips SHOE SERVICE Is Our Business and WE Know Our Business SAME OLD STAND a. e. McIntosh 203 Mus^rove, Street p iREIZniG! ARE YOUR FLOORS ICY COLD? • ARE YCiU CONFINED TO ONE OR TWO ROOMS? • ARE YOUR CEILINGS OVERHEATED? • ARE YOU WASTING FUEL ON SOOT AND SMOKE? • IS YOUR HEAT GOING UP THE CHIMNEY? / • IS YOUR FUEL BILL TOO HIGH? 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