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and no judicial branch and obviously, this
is even too absurd for discussion.
Now, these items with respect to these
two departments are small. They are fixed
by law and they may not be decreased by
the General Assembly and so far as our
statutes are concerned, they may as you
will learn hereafter be increased only un-
der certain situations.
(First Vice President James Clark, as-
sumed the Chair.)
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
May I break in to recognize Mr. Churchill
Murray.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Certainly.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
Por what purpose does the gentleman rise?
DELEGATE E. C. MURRAY: Mr.
Chairman and fellow delegates, I would like
to announce the presence in the gallery of
forty-one students from the Hanover High
School with their teacher, Miss Ruth, and
ask you to join me in welcoming them.
DELEGATE J. CLARK (presiding) :
We are delighted to have them with us
today.
(Applause.)
Judge Sherbow, you may proceed.
DELEGATE SHERBOW: Now, the third
type of appropriation raises a different
problem. I also do not know of any prob-
lem which has been more misunderstood
than the mandatory provisions for the pub-
lic schools. I believe that when you under-
stand this provision you will find that it is
not only a proper one, but that you would
not want any change made in it. It was
originally inserted in the very first budget
report by Dr. Goodnow and it has been
carried through into the constitutional
amendment that that brought forth, and
this is all that it says.
When the legislature provides for what
shall be done for the benefit of the public
schools, that becomes a law.
If the legislature says that the State of
Maryland will contribute to each public
school system in each of the 24 counties,
and here I take Baltimore City as one, the
legislature when it says it will contribute
to each of these 24 counties $370, and I
take this figure for practical reasons, for
every pupil in the school in that particular
county, this is a law.
The State will give you, Baltimore
County or Anne Arundel or Somerset
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County, for each year $370 for each child
you have in school.
Now, that is all that the law says, and
when the governor puts that figure in the
budget, the legislature cannot reduce it. It
is mandatory. But where does the difficulty
come in? It comes in this way, that nobody
knows exactly how many children there
will be in the school in the particular
county when the time comes to make up the
budget.
Now, let us assume that we are making
up the budget right now over in the State
House. They are making it up to go into
effect July 1st, 1968. They are going to
give $370 for every school child in each
particular county. This is what the State
is giving to them.
When that budget bill is handed to the
legislature, they will put in the figure as
recommended by the Board of Education.
Now, where does the Board of Education
get the figures to say how many children
will be in school in Harford County for
the school year beginning in the fall of
1968? The superintendent of schools and
all of the machinery of figuring and calcu-
lation goes into the operation.
The State and the county will find out
how many school children there were last
year or this year, how many new houses
are contemplated to be built, how many
new families are coming into the county,
and all of this when it is finally sifted out
brings you down to one figure; so many
children will come in for next year.
Now, in addition to needing to know
this in Harford County, for example, they
will have all of these calculations, but they
need to know it just as much for the gov-
ernor and his director of the budget as
they need to know it for the Harford
County Commissioners. My good friend, Dr.
Willis, Superintendent of Schools there, and
a delegate to this Convention, is sitting in
on this very item at this particular time.
They too must pick up a big part of the
tab for the schools. They need to know how
many children will be in school. They also
have to know this because the federal gov-
ernment has been providing a very large
series of contributions in different fields
for the school systems, and if you do not
have the money with which to participate,
if you do not know how much you are going
to need, then you are in no position to ac-
cept the benefit of these contributions by
the federal government.
The school superintendent does his best
to figure out how many children there will
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