[Letter from Yanuario Alvarez to the Laredo Ayuntamiento, May 10, 1834] Page: 2 of 2
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ARGUMENTS IN FAVOR OF FREE TEXT AMENDM.3NT
1. This amendment is a measure of justice. Thousands of Texas children attend prí-
vate schools. Their parents or guardians pay State and local taxes which support the
public schools and purchase free text books. These children and their parents are
citizens of the State, and as much entitled to be the recipients of its educational
bounties, as other children. The tax-payer is entitled to something for his money.
2. It will not increase the State’s expenditures. For ten years or more the number
of text books bought by the State has been determined as followss On April 1 of each
year, each teacher reports the máximum attendance inher grade or school. The figures
so reported, which in most cases will exceed the máximum attendance at the whole
school, are added together and increased by ten per cent. The 110 per cent repre-
sents the number of books purchased. (See Revised Statutes of 1925, Article 2875.)
Many children in the public schools buy their own books as, doubtless, many children
in prívate schools will do even if the amendment is adopted. These three factorss (1.-
the use of máximum figures in each room or class; 2.-the addition of the ten per cent;
and 3.-the purchase of books by the public school children) create a surplus of books.
This surplus is now idle. The proposed amendment would put it, or a part of it, to work.
3. The prívate school should be fostered and promoted. Until the adoption of the
Constitution of 1876 we had no schools in Texas except prívate schools. That means
that practically every Citizen of Texas who carne to maturity before the year 1900,
was educated in prívate schools. The prívate school, therefore, has furnished the
educational and cultural background for the civilization of today. To determine its
effectiveness, compare the Senators, Representatives Governors, Legislators and
other public officials of the past two decades with those we had from 1836 to 1900.
The heads of our institutions of higher learning admit that boys and girls entering
those institutions from prívate schools are at least as well prepared for college as
those entering from the public schools. Prívate school children have recently won a
number of contests open to and entered by all school children. A prívate school boy
from one of our Texas cities recently won a nation-wide contest. Children in prívate
schools have recently won when placed in city-wide contests. The prívate school is
still doing good work.
The prívate school eases the burden on the taxpayer. The children attending prívate
schools impose no educational burden on the taxpayer. By reason of their non-atten-
dance at the public schools, the funds available for the support of the public schools
are greater in proportion to the public school enrollment. For instance, if there are
50,000 children of school age in a city which has available for school purposes $1,-
500,000. per year, that city, if all the children attend the public schools, can
spend only $30. per child; but if 5,000 of the children attend prívate schools the
public schools will have $33.33 for each child in the public schools. Fewer children
in the public schools means fewer public school teachers to pay; fewer public schools
to build, insure and repair, smaller interest and sinking fund payments on school
bonds. If all the children attending prívate schools in such cities as Houston and
San Antonio should suddenly decide to move into the public schools the resulting
crowded conditions would be insupportable.
Many prívate schools, especially denominational schools, charge no tuition. In
such cases it is solely the ability or willingness of the parents to buy school books
that determines whether the child will go to the public school or prívate school. In
times such as now many parents are unable to buy books. Books require cash; and they
have no cash. If the proposed amendment is adopted, some children now attending
public schools may be expected to return to prívate schools, and other prívate
schools may be established, lessening to some extent the present strain on the public
purse.
4. The teachers in the public schools should favor this amendment. Their salaries
are low enough as it is. But considering the hard times of the past few years, it is not
difficult to imagine great numbers of prívate school children being shortly forced,
by economic circumstances, into the public schools. Many prívate schools in sucha
situation, on being deprived of a substantial portion of their patrons, will be
obliged, by the same economic reasons, to cióse entirely, thus sending the remainder
of their children to the public schools. If such things require the construction of
new public school buildings and the employment of additional teachers, the actual
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[Letter from Yanuario Alvarez to the Laredo Ayuntamiento, May 10, 1834], letter, May 10, 1834; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth872965/m1/2/: accessed July 17, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting St. Mary's University Louis J. Blume Library.