Aberdeen Faces School Funding Crisis
School board calls for a special election to determine if property owners will pay an additional tax to keep classes in session.
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As announced, the school board held a meeting last Monday to determine the question of calling a special election for the purpose of raising additional money for the maintenance of the public schools. The result of its deliberations was to order a special election to be held Saturday, July 28, between the hours of one and eight p.m., at the old school house on Wishkah street, to decide whether or not a special tax of seven mills shall be levied upon all of the property in the school district. The salaries were fixed as follows: Principal, $100 per month; teachers in the high school building and in East Aberdeen, $50; South Aberdeen, $35. Only by reducing salaries still more can a longer term than six months be had unless the special tax of seven mills is voted.
“The children must be educated in the common branches, without any ifs or ands.”
Education funding battles were as central to Aberdeen's civic life in 1894 as they are today. The tension between local tax levies and the desire for extended academic calendars reflects a perennial struggle to balance fiscal restraint with the community's commitment to public schooling.
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