§ MR. HART-DAVIES (Hackney, N.)I beg to ask the President of the Board of Education whether he is aware that hitherto children boarded-out in the country by Poor Law guardians have been admitted to free education in the local public elementary schools equally with the other village children, but that recently several provincial education authorities have claimed from the guardians the net cost of the education of boarded-out children, and intimated that in future children will not be admitted unless they are so paid for; and whether, with a view to preventing the discouragement of boarding-out in the country, he proposes to take any, and, if any, what steps in the matter.
§ THE PRESIDENT OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION (Mr. MCKENNA, Monmouthshire, N.)I have no desire to discourage the system of boarding-out, and where the guardians' area is within the educational area in which children are boarded-out I agree with my hon. friend that there is no sufficient reason for the education authority to exact a contribution from the guardians. So far as I am aware no such claim is usually made. If any case of the kind is brought to my notice I shall be prepared to hold that the exclusion of such children on the ground that the guardians have refused to make a contribution is not reasonable. But where children are boarded-out in an area other than that in which they are normally resident it does not appear to me equitable that the ratepayers of that area should be under any obligation to 796 bear the cost of educating such children if the guardians refuse to take advantage of the provisions which Parliament in Section 2 of the Elementary Education Act, 1900, has provided for the purpose.