Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/258

 236 Charles Abner Howard create a fund, a part of which should be used to reimburse high school taxing units to the extent of fifty per cent of all money raised for high school purposes in excess of a three mill tax. Some high school units do not need to levy three mills. These would receive no state aid. Some must levy five mills or more in order to maintain an ef- fective high school. These should receive state assistance. Second, the remainder of the proposed high school fund should be used to pay the transportation of students whose homes are out of easy reach of a high school. Definite regulations could be worked out for handling this matter. Third, there should be a provision for an assistant to the state superintendent, who should serve as high school inspector to advise as to improvement and to see that definite standards were met by the schools of the state. The financial measure here proposed would distribute the tax burden and, combined with expert inspection, would improve the quality of high school instruction in the poorer districts. By eliminating the individual ex- pense of transportation, it would give equal high school opportunities to all the boys and girls in the state so far as equality in such matters is possible. BIBLIOGRAPHY ACKERMAN, J. H. — Fourteenth Biennial Report of the Superintendent of Public Instruction of Oregon. 1900. p. 197 Recommends high school legislation. P. 199. Tells of the adoption of the first state course of study for elementary schools of Oregon and of the establishing of uniform eighth grade examinations. Seventeenth Biennial Report. 1907. pp. 190-191. Discussion of the high school situation in Oregon and recommends Union High School Law. Eighteenth Biennial Report. 1900. p. XV. A plan of classification for Oregon high schools. BROWN, E. E. — The Making of Our Middle Schools. Chapter XIII, The Movement Toward Public Control. Chapter XIV, The First High Schools. Chapter XVI, Later School Systems. BROWN, J. F. — The American High School. Chapter I, Historical. Gives a brief sketch of the development of high schools in this country.