Page:History of Public School Education in Arizona.djvu/106

100 12. The teachers’ pension system is not in accordance with pension schemes generally recognized as acceptable. It should be revised.

13. Money for support of the State department, for teachers’ pensions, and other special purposes should be provided by direct appropriation and not taken from the State school fund.

There has been in Arizona little differentiation between city and other public schools. The city schools have received the favors and privileges which naturally always come to the strongest districts, but have in other respects had a development substantially the same as all other schools. This similarity of all schools in Arizona is due to the conditions of their evolution. In the earlier days city schools were the only ones, for, because of the conditions of settlement, the character of the country itself, and the presence of Indians, settlements were largely made in compact groups; this characteristic was accentuated by the demands of mining, the leading business occupation. The schools were, therefore, first organized in the towns and from them as a center extended to the outlying districts. They form the basis of the statistics from year to year. Each is organized into a single district with its own superintendent and one or more schools, with the taxing power and the authority to issue bonds. While having no history aside from the general history of public schools in the Territory and State, they have led in forward movements. In fact without them it would have been impossible for the history of the public schools to be written, for there would have been no history to write.

The city schools began with the lower grades and evolved their higher grades and their high schools by degrees. In December, 1882, Supt. M. M. Sherman reported that the advanced grade in the Tombstone schools “is prepared for high-school work which it is now doing in part.” In the same report Supt. Sherman continued:

Indeed, it would appear that the high school was already known at that time in Tucson; for, remarking on these words of Supt. Sherman’s report, Mr. McCrea said (pp. 108–9):