yet to meet an intelligent man is Maryland
who considers the present system of education
in Maryland to be one worthy of Maryland.
It is more perfect in some portions than in
others; but in those portions where it has
been perfected the people have not complain-
ed of the expense.
Why then load up your report with in-
junctions to your legislature to do acts which
they not only have the power, but which I
believe no man doubts their willingness to do ?
If you do not think education worth the
money, say so clearly, and put it on record
that you believe a moderate tax for free
school education in the State is a disadvan-
tage. But do not attempt to go round and
round the stump, on the pretence all the
time of going forward. Either go forward or
go back. Either say that you want it. or say
that you will not have it—that the price de-
manded is too great, and that you believe it
to be a disadvantage to the State.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. There is one element
which enters into the consideration of this
matter of the amount of taxation, to which I
have heard no reference made, and which seems
to me to be an important consideration. We
have now in several counties of the State pub-
lic schools. As I understand the provisions
of the report before us, it provides for free
public schools. So that in estimating the tax-
ation, or the amount of charge upon the peo-
ple, the amount which is paid by those who
send pupils to the schools under the present
system should properly be deducted in order
to ascertain the difference in the amount. So
far as I am aware that charge throughout the
State is not less than a dollar per quarter per
pupil.
Mr. DANIEL, For all those able to pay.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE, Of course; which is
ninety-nine one-hundreths throughout the
State.
Mr. DANIEL. The gentleman is mistaken.
Mr. STOCKBRIDGE. I am not mistaken. I
speak: by the book when I say it, for the great
bulk of those under the present system con-
sider those that pay the aristocracy above
those that do not; and if they cannot pay
they do not go. That is the result of it,
This is an important consideration, because
it amounts in the course of the year to a great
burden of taxation. Thus if a poor man has
five children whom he sends to school under
the present system, he pays a tax for the sup-
port of the schools to the amount of $20 a
year; which is just the tax under the system
provided by this bill for the man that has
$10,000 worth of property. This element of
taxation which now comes in to swell the
grand total of what is paid by the State should
be taken into consideration when we come to
compare the one system with the other. It is
a shifting of the burden of taxation, in many
cases, from those who are ill able to bear it to
those who are abundantly able. The man |
now who is rich in children only, pays the
great burden of taxation, while a man of
wealth who happens to be a bachelor or child-
less almost entirely escapes. He pays noth-
ing in proportion to the other man. Under
the system which is now arranged, which is a
money system, throwing the burden of this
taxation for the support of this branch of the
government precisely according to the policy
of the other branches of the government of the
State, the burden is placed upon the shoulders
of those able to bear it.
I think therefore that this element should
be considered; and that when we reckon the
cost of the present system, we should add to
the taxation of the State and county the
amount paid by parents for the education of
their children; and then we have the total
footing up of the present system. Then the
taxation alone will constitute the footing up
of the new system. The difference in that
view of the case will not be as great as it
would appear on the face of it.
Mr. SANDS. I should not rise if it were not
to suggest a consideration I have not heard
urged here, and one which I think should be
convincing and conclusive upon this subject
of the increase of taxation. I assert as a truth
susceptible of immediate mathematical dem-
onstration, this fact, first and foremost, from
the figures, that you really increase the tax
upon the people less than one-twentieth of
one per cent., under these proposed sections.
1 assert as a truth susceptible of mathemati-
cal demonstration that by this system you ut-
terly destroy taxation upon the school ques-
tion within the period of twenty years—ut-
terly destroy it. So that you who are acting
here for the people to-day, by the adoption of
these sections, this system, do beyond all cavil
ordain that within the period of twenty years
all taxation upon the subject of public schools
shall cease utterly and entirely, and leave the
State with a fund of six millions devoted to
this grand object. That is just as clear as fig-
ures can make it.
Some of your counties are paying ten, and
some twelve, fifteen and twenty cents. That is
dropping water into the sea. it is providing
for the institutions of this year, and providing
for them very poorly, at the best, and the
taxation you pay. is gone forever, and with
your present system the tax will he upon you
forever. No one doubts it, Mark you, sir,
1 say that under the system as at present ex-
isting, your tax on the average all over the
State will run up to 15 and 20 cents on the
$100 this day. It is a fair calculation that
you are paying that for the the sent defective
system, creating no school fund, providing no
means by which this taxation shall ever cease.
By adopting this system you are providing a
school fund which inevitably will in twenty
years, and for all lime, leave you with six mil-
lions of dollars in the treasury for the use of the
public schools, with no taxation whatsoever. |
