Preston, Connecticut, USA (Poquetanuck)
1918 - PRESTON TO DECIDE ON FREE TEXT BOOKS

The town of Preston is in the throes of the free school books question and will settle it by a vote of the towns people at the annual town meeting next Monday night.

A prominent citizen of the town who has interested himself in the pros and cons of the question outlined some fo these on Friday as follows:

First. One hundred and thrity-five towns out of the 168 in Connecticut have already adopted this system. Fifteen states in the United States have made the furnishing of text books mandatory. Connecticut is the only state in New England that has not made it mandatory to furnish free text books to elementary school students. Connecticut has made ti optional to the towns. Under this law 85 per cent of the children attending public school in Connecticut receive free text books. Seventeen states in the United States have passed optional laws along this line and in the 16 states where no law has been passed in relation to this subject a considerable number of the cities and towns are furnishing books without legal anction. Massachusetts has had a mandatory law for 24 years.

Second. The movement for free text books is a logical part of the movement for free education. Legal enactments are provided that children shall attend school, but no legal enactments have been passed to date to furnish the child with the necessary equipment with which to work after he gets to school.

Third. Connecticut has already made it mandatory to furnish free text books to poor children. This is on the whole unsatisfactory, as it marks as "charity pupils" thosw who wish to be independent. A citizen may find it difficult with the present high prices to furnish books to a family of five and should by no means be branded before his fellow townsmen as a pauper or indigent. Free text books allows the rich and poor alice to enter this highly democratic institution, the public school, upon the same level.

Fourth. In a free text book town books may be changed more easily and kept to date. Preston as many other towns has some books that are old and out of date. The removal of these books would submit a hardship upon individuals. If the town owned the books such material could be collected, sent to the publisher and a liberal exchange price made upon them.

Uniform boks may be obtained because of the eas of exchange. Free text books have a tendency to increase the average attendance since children without proper books and supplies are apt to say out until they have obtained them. There is also a value in the training which children get in caring for public property. This is a prime requisite for good citizenship.

When it comes to the opposite side of the question these arguments are met with:

First. Books belonging to the town are lost, destroyed or stoel. Books purchased byt the town are by virtue of the fact the property of the town. School authorities schould catalogue such boks and when loaned to children, teachers should charge them with the book, and such children should be held responsible for their proper use and return when the school year is at an end. A record can be kept of the books as the dollars and cents which belong to the town.

Second. Free text books will cost too much. It is cheaper. The town of Preston must purchase the books used in town whether the individual buys them or the town authorities buy them. Books can be bought at wholesale cheaper than retail. The retailer must have his commission even though it be small. The cost of free text books to all the schools in the United States in 1913 was 2 percent of the actual expenditure for schools. The ration has not changed much. This would indicate that Preston last year could have furnished books to all its children for about $102, which approximates 71 cents per pupil registered in the public schools. Preston needs a change in geographise. This book alone costs 80 cents retail. The increased tax rate on account of the adoption of free text books and supplies in town would be a fraction over one-tenth of a mill on a dollar, which is not excessive when the investment is maed in our boys and girls who are to be the future citizens of the land.

Third. Children should not be allowed to use the books of another child. As a matter of fact, children are constantly borrowing and exchanging books and papers whether they are the property of individuals or the town. Books are taken and exchanged from the public library without question. The danger of transmitting diseases through the agency of the text books is rather remote. In the case of a contagious diseas in a school books are either fumigated or destroyed.

Fourth. Books are not so well cared for. Testimony collected on thie point from 39 cities furnishing free text books to their children is contained in the annual report of the commissioner of edcuation, volume 1, page 639. The greater majority reported that books are as well cared for as under the individual ownership plan.

The consensus of opinion among teachers, supervisors and school authorities wherever free text books and supplies have been adopted seems to be in favor of the plan. Few if any communities have retracted after once having tried the system.

Norwich Bulletin
Norwich, Connecticut
September 21, 1918

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