Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/247

 High School Legislation In Oregon 225 these thinly settled sections should be provided by organ- izing county high schools located at one or more points in the county and supported by a tax upon all the property in the county. A county high school law had been in oper- ation in the neighboring state of California for ten years with apparent success. 41 Such a plan as this was made a part of the Kuykendall law. The plan was set forth in detail and was optional with the counties. 42 At the time of its adoption, the people of the state looked with favor upon the County High School Law. Gilliam, Josephine, Crook and Klamath Counties adopted the plan at once and Harney, Wheeler and Wallowa soon followed. 43 In several other counties the plan was under consideration during the four or five years following the enactment of the law. 44 However, these counties lost their ardor before the question came to a vote and, except in one case, the system has never been extended beyond the seven counties in which it was first adopted. As has been mentioned, this law was designed to serve the in- terests of the sparsely settled sections. But settlement does not always remain sparse. As new communities have grown up in counties having one county high school, jealousies have arisen and the county institution has been subjected to attack. The law provides that, if the people so vote, more than one high school may be established, but only one county has ever established more than one. Lincoln County established two such schools in 1921. Each of the other counties in which the plan has been placed in operation has had only one town of any con- siderable size at the time of the adoption. Presumably, ^Snyder, Edwin R— The Legal Status of Rural High Schools in the U. S. p. 70. 42 Oregon School Law. 1921. pp. 142-146. 43 In Josephine County the County high school board has operated under the clause which provides that a contract may be made with some district already maintaining a high school, to teach the high school stu- dents of the County at an agreed rate per capita. 44 Seventeenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruc- tion of Oregon. 1907. p. 190.