School Management and Finance
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Good Management
The financial management in some of our schools can be greatly
improved. More wisdom, more brain power, must be brought to bear
upon the work. More practical methods must be brought in to stop
the increase of expenditure, which would result in indebtedness. In
Battle Creek and College View altogether too much money has been
invested in buildings, and more than was necessary has been spent in
furnishing the school homes.
When the managers of a school find that it is not meeting running
expenses, and debts are heaping up, they should act like levelheaded
businessmen and change their methods and plans. When one year has
proved that the financial management has been wrong, let wisdom’s
voice be heard. Let there be a decided reformation. Teachers may
manifest a Christlike excellence in serious, solid thinking and planning
to improve the state of things. They should enter heartily into the plans
of the managers and share their burdens.
Low Tuitions
In some of our schools the price of tuitions has been too low. This
has in many ways been detrimental to the educational work. It has
brought discouraging debt; it has thrown upon the management a
continual suspicion of miscalculation, want of economy, and wrong
planning; it has been very discouraging to the teachers; and it leads
the people to demand correspondingly low prices in other schools.
Whatever may have been the object in placing the tuition at less than a
living rate, the fact that a school has been running behind heavily is
sufficient reason for reconsidering the plans and arranging its charges
so that in the future its showing may be different. The amount charged
for tuition, board, and residence should be sufficient to pay the salaries
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of the faculty, to supply the table with an abundance of healthful,
nourishing food, to maintain the furnishing of the rooms, to keep the
buildings in repair, and to meet other necessary running expenses. This
is an important matter and calls for no narrow calculation, but for a
thorough investigation. The counsel of the Lord is needed. The school
should have a sufficient income not only to pay the necessary running