The Fight for Seattle’s High School

It makes little difference to the people of Seattle under what name the board of school directors shall finally decide to carry on the course of study now included in the curriculum of the high school. While there is now and has been ever since the adoption of the constitution a serious question as to the right of the school board to maintain what is technically known as a high school, there is little, if any, doubt as to the power of the board to maintain grades and departments that will serve the same purpose. The legislature has in express terms given to the larger cities of the state the power to establish and maintain such grades and departments as shall in the judgment of the school boards best promote the interests of education. Under the circumstances, therefore, the school board have pursued a perfectly proper course in nominally abolishing the high school. But there is no reason why one of the two hundred and fifty pupils now attending the high school should lose a day. The pupils and teachers should not be made to suffer on account of any differences of opinion that may exist among the members of the board.