It is commonly believed that the Negro has had and is now getting much more than his share of the public school fund. It is said that the Negro is getting nearly half the money, while he is paying only a very small percentage of the taxes. Thus, the following is the estimate of Mr. J. Y. Joyner, Superintendent of Public Instruction of North Carolina: “Upon the most liberal estimate, it seems that in 1908 the Negroes received for the maintenance of their public schools in North Carolina about twice as much as they paid directly or indirectly for this purpose. I think that this is about in accordance with the experience and observation of those familiar with the administration of the public schools in North Carolina. My own opinion is that the white people pay, directly or indirectly, for the education of the Negro more rather than less than one dollar for every dollar that the Negro pays, directly or indirectly for that purpose.” Mr. J. D. Eggleston, Jr., Superintendent of Public Instruction of Virginia, estimates that the public school fund for Negroes in that State is $500,000, of which the Negro pays $87,000, or less than one-fifth.[494] There have been fitful efforts from time to time to divide the public school fund in proportion to the amount of taxes paid by each race. The most recent and thorough-going effort[495] to have the school fund so apportioned was made by Ex-Governor James K. Vardaman, of Mississippi. But his effort, like that of those before him, came to naught. The white taxpayers of the South have not shown any very evident desire to withdraw their financial aid from the colored public schools. But there has been enough legislation on different phases of the question of the apportionment of the school money to deserve attention. In Alabama,[496] in 1896, all poll tax money paid by colored persons went to the support of colored schools, and all that paid by white persons, to the support of white schools. The present Code apparently does not require this separation of taxes; but in the provisions for special tax districts[497] for school purposes, the law provides that the amount paid by whites and blacks shall be kept separate, presumably meaning that the funds arising from special taxation shall be apportioned according to the amount paid by each race. Though Delaware usually makes an annual appropriation for colored schools, nevertheless in 1875,[498] and again in 1887,[499] it provided for a tax of thirty cents on the hundred dollars upon the property of colored persons for the maintenance of colored schools.