Answer Critics 

 Of lAA Rural 

 School Policy 



lAA Has Always Held 

 Vietv That Reorganization 

 Should Be The Duty 

 Of Local People 



How does the Illinois Agricultural 

 Association feel about school re- 

 organization? Why does it feel 

 that way? 

 These queries have been an- 

 swered before but questions arising in 

 areas not yet reorganized call for a 

 review of lAA school policy over the 

 past several years. 



lAA school reorganization policy dates 

 mainly from publication of the lAA 

 School Report in 1944. The report was 

 approved unanimously at the lAA an- 

 nual meeting in 1944. It recommended 

 reorganization of small schools into 

 larger units. It favored the 12-grade 

 type of district. It recognized that the 

 main purpose of school reorganization 

 was to establish school districts with 

 opportunities for a good education at 

 reasonable cost where the broader tax 

 rate would help to equalize the burden 

 of school support, and where school 

 administration could be improved. 



The lAA agreed that reorganization 

 should be done by local people. It had 

 opposed legislation in 1937 that seemed 

 to be the opening wedge for compulsory 

 school reorganization. 



Support of the School Survey act was 

 the next step taken by the lAA. It became 

 law in 1945. This act set up the ma- 

 chinery for local people to make their 

 study. It also provided for a vote after 

 public hearings. The lAA was a co- 

 sponsor with the Illinois Association of 

 School Boards in securing passage of the 

 School Survey Act. Other associations 

 supported this legislation including the 

 Illinois Education Associaton and the 

 Illinois Congress of Parents and Teachers. 

 After many survey committees had 

 studied their problems and agreed they 

 would like to recommend the 12-grade 

 type of district, the lAA in 1946 agreed 

 to support legislation to provide a more 

 simple method of setting up a 12-grade 

 district than the method provided under 



existing law. The result was the Com- 

 munity Unit Act of 1947. No votes in 

 either Senate or House were registered 

 against the Community Unit Act. To 

 date over 200 community unit districts 

 have been set up under that act. This 

 is proof of its popularity. 



As progress is made, new problems 

 arise. The Illinois Agricultural Associa- 

 tion has stood ready to cooperate with 

 efforts to correct existing legislation or 

 pass needed legislation in the interest 

 of sound reorganization. This Associa- 

 tion has opposed efforts to torpedo the 

 school reorganization program under 

 which so much progress already has been 

 made. 



The lAA has been commended for its 

 practical approach to reorganization. It 

 has been criticized too, though less than 

 expected. A few statements answering 

 these criticisms are in order: 



1. lAA representatives have departed 

 from established lAA school policy. The 

 lAA still has copies of the school report 

 available for anyone who would like to 

 check established policy. 



2. Our approval of a more desirable 

 type of district suitable enough to do 

 the job does not mean necessarily that 

 the lAA can go on record approving 

 everything that has been done along 

 tlMt line. The lAA has defended the 

 right of local people to do their own 

 reorganizing. 



3. Rural people do not have protection 

 under the laws. Reorganization has large- 

 ly been left in the hands of rural people: 

 (a) A majority of board members that 

 voted to make a survey were rural, (b) 

 A majority of members of the survey 

 committees were rural, (c) Both the 

 Survey Act and the Community Unit 

 Act require a separate vote in rural as 



By John K. Cox, Director 



Rural School Activitiet 



well as urban territoy, (d) The Com- 

 munity Unit Act, under which most prog- 

 ress has been made, prevents grouping 

 the representation on the school board 

 from the town, another concession to 

 rural people. 



4. The lAA favors districts that are 

 too large. Of the first 197 community 

 unit districts set up 76 are too small 

 according to lAA recommendations. The 

 variations in size of high schools in- 

 included in these new districts runs from 

 60 to 1535 or from a total enrollment 

 of 285 to 4,012. There is sufficient 

 proof of local control. Most of the 

 leadership in the lAA favored the com- 

 munity type district. 



5. The lAA goes along with school 

 people and does not consider farm 

 people's interests carefully enough. In 

 the first place, the lAA encountered many 

 school people who opposed reorganiza- 

 tion, especially at the start. Some still 

 do. Secondly the lAA's responsibility 

 in the reorganization effort is to offer 

 far-sighted leadership for the establish- 

 ment of schools that will offer children 

 as many advantages as possible in the 

 years ahead. As to who indoctrinates 

 whom, there are numerous instances to 

 show that the lAA has done a lot of 

 indoctrinating of other organizations. 



6. The lAA has encouraged school re- 

 organization in areas where rural prop- 

 erty will have to bear a larger tax 

 burden. It is granted that there is 

 entirely too much dependence placed on 

 the property tax to support schools, and 

 there are many inequities. But this same 

 situation existed before school reorgani- 

 zation began. It would be difficult to 

 establish a district in which someone did 

 not pay more, others pay less. That is 

 one of the objectives of reorganization, 

 to broaden the tax base and equalize the 

 tax load. However, to many the edu- 

 cational advantages possible in the larger 

 district, are worth the additional cost. 



L A. A. RECORD 



