Repository: UIHistories Project: Board of Trustees Minutes - 1920 [PAGE 26]

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22

BOARD OF TRUSTEES

[July 17,

ing to about $40,000 for the coming year, as proposed in the schedule presented by Doctor Charters, Director of the School of Education, Dean Davenport, and Miss Bevier. Of this $40,000, which it is proposed to spend on this work of teacher-training in these three departments, $20,000 will be refunded to the University under the Smith-Hughes Act after the close of the fiscal year, that is, after July 1, 1919. A portion of this expenditure is already included in our budget of last year and will be reported in our budget for the coming year, so that the net expense of this undertaking to the University, which is herewith submitted, deducting from the expense the refund which the University would be entitled to obtain from the State Board of Vocational Education, and deducting the amount already in our budget, would be from ten to twelve thousand dollars. I had supposed when this schedule was prepared that the State Board of Vocational Education would ask the Legislature for an appropriation equal to the federal appropriation to the State under the Smith-Hughes Act, and that with this fund, half from the Federal Government and half from the State, the Board would proceed to defray the expenses of this teacher-training in the different institutions of the State, which might undertake it, so that doing this work would not involve on the part of the University any permanent outlay at its expense. The reason we should have to meet this expense during the present year is that inasmuch as the Smith-Hughes Act was not ready for adoption until after the adjournment of the last Legislature no appropriation was made to match the Federal appropriation and, consequently, the institutions that could comply squeezed out a certain amount of money to meet this situation of carrying the work in teacher-training for Qne year. The executive secretary of the Board of Vocational Education, Honorable Francis G'. Blair, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, informs me that I am mistaken in regard to this matter and that no matter how much money the Legislature appropriates for the Smith-Hughes work, the Board will make appropriations to the different institutions for carrying on the teacher-training work only on a fifty-fifty basis. This makes an entirely new situation, and it means that if the Board is to carry on this work permanently, it would have to keep increasing its appropriations to match the Federal appropriations. I am not inclined to think that this would be a safe undertaking—in fact, I think it would be a very unsafe one. I think, however, it would be safe for the Board to give the President of the University authority to approve these proposed schedules for the coming year and make a frank and honest attempt to provide at the University for the teacher-training contemplated by the Smith-Hughes Act, making it a part of our School of Education. I have not inserted this amount of $40,000 in the budget, which I shall propose to you later in the day, because I think we can carry it without difficulty in our University balance up to the time the Federal Government makes the refund, which does not come in until after the first of next July.