Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 63.djvu/355

Rh clause, protecting the religious beliefs of children of other denominations attending the schools, was sufficient. The government had, therefore, the alternative of helping these voluntary schools on terms and thus knitting them forever into the national system, or of building at a cost of £130,000,000 schools to compete with these schools, or of buying them compulsorily at a cost of over £50,000,000 and starting them as undenominational schools. Obviously, the only businesslike course was to make terms with the voluntary schools. The bill was fought in the legislature for a period of nine months, but eventually passed, retaining the principles contended for by all economists and educationalists of weight in the country.

I must briefly note the provisions of the act. The first section enacts that every county council and county borough council and the borough council of every non-county borough with a population over 10,000 and the district council of every urban district with a population over 20,000 shall be the local educational authority for elementary education, while the county council and the county borough council are the authorities for higher education. In the case of all non-county boroughs and urban districts the borough or district council may supplement the work of the county council by supplying or aiding the supply of, within their financial limits, higher education. In the non-county boroughs with a population of 10,000 and under, and urban districts with a population of 30,000 and under, the county council, in addition to its authority over higher education, controls elementary education. The act goes on to provide that the local educational authority shall 'take such steps as seem to them desirable, after consultation with the Board of Education, to supply or aid the supply of education other than elementary, and to promote the general coordination of all forms of education.' In order to fulfil this laudable purpose the local educational authority is invested with a rating power for secondary education to enable it to supplement the funds above referred to as ear-marked for secondary education. County borough councils can make any necessary rate for secondary education, but county councils can only make (apart from the consent of the Local Government Board to a higher rate) a rate of twopence in the pound (threepence in certain exceptional cases) while the councils of non-county boroughs and urban districts are able only to make a rate of one penny in the pound for this purpose. The religious aspect of higher education is made the subject of special provisions, and a carefully drafted conscience clause protects all classes of pupils.

Part III. of the act (sections 5-17) deals with elementary education. It abolishes school boards and substitutes the local education authority. This authority, in addition to the power of the old school boards over schools provided out of the rates, is responsible for and has the control of all secular education in these denominational schools