general, and scientific. Twelve teachers are employed, and a night school is conducted, open to all, and with an enrollment of 267 (1916–17), many of whom are adults, including foreigners. The school has a library of over 2,000 volumes.[1]
In the earlier days there was no necessity for differentiating between the various normal parts of a city system. The grammar and high-school grades came up as the different parts of a single whole.
The beginning of differentiation of high schools from the city school of the grades is contained in the remark of Supt. Netherton in 1893–94. In his report for that year he says:
There is always a lack of interest in high-school work in newly settled countries. Not only is there a lack of interest manifested, but strong opposition frequently arises to any effort to provide liberally for the maintenance of high schools. A great many do not seem to appreciate the fact that the high school is one of the rounds of the educational ladder that can not be dispensed with without serious danger to our educational interests. * * *
While I believe that the advantages of a high school are worth more to every citizen than he contributes to its support, owing to the physical character of Arizona there are many isolated and thinly populated sections where it would be impossible to establish high schools, and there is an appearance of injustice in taxing them to support institutions at so great a distance from them that they could not reap any direct advantage therefrom. A system of high schools can be provided for, however, against which these objections will not lie. Pass a law allowing any number of common-school districts to consolidate for the purpose of maintaining a high school, with the consent of a majority of the taxpayers of the districts proposing to unite. Then an annual levy can be made on the property in the high-school district for its maintenance. The school should be free for all residents of the high-school district, and a reasonable tuition fee should be charged for nonresidents. This is a plan that has been successfully tried in California and some of the Eastern States and is as efficient as it is fair. Students can live at home and reap all the advantages of a first-class education, thus saving to the people the expense of transportation to and living expenses at outside institutions.
The legislature responded to this suggestion, and the law relating to high schools, passed in 1895,[2] provided that any school district of 2,000 or more inhabitants, or any two or more adjoining districts with the necessary population, might unite and form a union high-school district for the purpose of maintaining a high school. They were to elect a board of education of five, who were to have all necessary powers, prescribe the course of study and admit applicants, but there was no provision for special funds other than those to be raised by an annual tax, the amount of which was to be estimated for by the county superintendent, and it was made the duty of the proper authorities to levy the tax asked on the single or union high-school dis-
