Coral Gables Historical Archive
The Times
Thursday, November 3, 1960, page 37 (of 63)
The page
The text of this pageRead by computer from the scan, so some words may be wrong. The page picture is the original.
MILK Nature's Lift
MANDEL Milk gives you a natural lift with Protein. Milk at noon gives you the lift you need to feel refreshed. Drink 3 glasses every day—one at noon, one at night, one along the way. You never outgrow your need for Milk. AMERICAN DAIRY ASSOCIATION Representing the dairy farmers in your area
SCHOOL COSTS
Continued from page 13 high (as my neighbor, Sam Pennypincher, contends?) Before you try to answer these questions, remember that your town is not quite like any other. The part of the country in which you live has costs different from those of other sections. And the current cost of your school system must, in all fairness, be related to the demands which your town places upon it—the frills you require, the adult education programs provided, and other costly extras. However, taking all these things into consideration, you can get a pretty good idea of where you stand in the educational cost spiral by completing the budget work sheets provided with this article. Just match your local figures—which you can secure from your School Board, or perhaps your newspaper—with the suburban averages supplied. You can determine "how high is too high" in your case. Unless, however, you are one of the real extremes, you are likely to find that, while your town is spending more for education and is paying its teachers better salaries than the highest ten per cent of the communities in the nation, it isn't spending enough to tempt bankruptcy. If, on the other hand, your expenditure per pupil is plainly out of line with the figure for the quality ten per cent in your region and/or the suburban average, it is time to take a sharp look. It is safe to say that your town either is offering education of an extraordinarily high quality, or you, as a taxpayer, are being taken to the cleaners. Costs Will Rise Even More And now is the time to look. A lot more kids to educate are on the way. Even if per-pupil costs are held constant, the school bill is due to rise 30% by 1964-65, and almost 50% by 1960-70. Maybe it's this realization that has given the taxpayer nerve a twinge, and sparked the new national drive to make school dollars go farther—to find cheaper ways to build, to spread instructional talents more efficiently, and to clamp down on the frills. That's why some facts are so important. As education expert Fred Hechinger says: "For the local citizen, who wants to vote intelligently on school expenditures, or for the national leaders, who want to vote intelligently on Federal aid to education, a cost index seems an indispensable yardstick. It is the only way to shed light on a debate that has so often been carried on in the darkness of guess and prejudice." It's your move. Sharpen your pencil and see just "how high" the school costs really are in your little utopia' before you make that speech at open meeting!