facilities for instruction, and the several superintendents of these institutions are required to make such reports to him as he may prescribe. EDUCATION IN HIGHER AND PROFESSIONAL STUDIES. Any township may, by a majority vote of its electors, establish a high school, or two or more adjoining townships or parts of townships may join in establishing a high school. It is the duty of the president,. principal, or other proper officer of every organized university, college, seminary, academy, or other literary institution, heretofore incorporated or hereafter incorporated in the State, to make out, or cause to be made out and forwarded to the office of the State superintendent, on or before the 15th day of August in each year, a report showing the value of real estate owned by the corporation; the amount of other funds and endowments; the number of instructors; the number of students; the studies pursued, and the books used; the course of instruction; the terms of tuition; and such other matters as may be specially required by the State superintendent.1 COUNTY SUPERVISION. The county superintendent is elected every year by the qualified voters of the county. He must execute a bond of not less than $12,000. He keeps record of all land sales; of all moneys received, loaned, and paid out; and makes financial report to the county board; apportions money to townships according to the number of resident children under 21 years of age; visits schools; examines teachers; advises school officers and teachers; assists in the management of county teachers' institutes; examines the accounts of township treasurers; may employ assistants; may loan money, not interest, belonging to the county fund; reports to the State superintendent on or before the 15th day of August before each regular session of the General Assembly, or annually if so required. All bonds, notes, mortgages, moneys, and effects which have heretofore accrued or may hereafter accrue from the sale of the sixteenth section of the common-school lands of any township or county, or from the sale of any real estate or other property, taken on any judgment or for any debt due to the principal of any township or county fund, and all other funds of every description which have been or may hereafter be carried to and made part of the principal of any township or county fund, are set apart as the principal of the township or county fund respectively, and no part thereof shall ever be expended for any purpose whatever, but shall be loaned out and held for use, rent, or profit. The interests, rents, issues, and profits only, arising from the principal, shall be distributed for school purposes.* TEXT-BOOKS. The district school directors direct what branches of study shall be taught and what text-books and apparatus shall be used in the several schools, and enforce uniformity of text-books therein; but shall not permit text-books to be changed oftener than once in 4 years. LOCAL SUPERVISION. Each Congressional township is established a township for school purposes; but fractional townships may be consolidated. The business of the township is done by 3 trustees, elected 1 annually for 3-year terms by the legal voters of the township. These trustees are successors to the trustees of school lands appointed by the commissioners' court, and of trustees of schools elected in townships under acts of February 26, 1841, and March 1, 1847. The trustees must hold regular semi-annual meetings in April and October, and special meetings when necessary. One of the trustees is appointed president of the board, who holds his office for 1 year, and some resident person who is not a director or trustee is appointed treasurer, who is ex-officio clerk of the board, and holds his office for 2 years, and must make satisfactory bond. The trustees lay off townships into districts; apportion school money; examine all books, notes, mortgages, securities, &c., of the township treasurer or other township school officer; have the care and custody of school building and school sites; may remove the township treasurer; may purchase real estate in satisfaction of any judg ment or decrce; report to the county superintendent biennially or oftener if required to do so. The township treasurer keeps all moneys, books, and papers belonging to his township and must keep account of all the amounts received and paid out by him; may lend moneys which come into his hands, except such as may be subject to distribution, Sch. Law, secs. 35 and 54. Ibid., sec. 11 et seq. Ibid., sec. 48. and must give to the county superintendent an annual statement of such loans; must keep the township fund loaned at interest; must make a semi-annual statement, and also an annual exhibit of the fiscal affairs of the township to the board of trustees; and must make semi-annual statements to each district or part of district in the township, showing the condition of the account of such district or part of district.' Each district elects 3 school directors, 1 each year, for 3-year terms. The directors ascertain the amount of specia. tax to be levied in their district; are liable as directors for balances due teachers; adopt and enforce rules and regulations for the management and government of schools; appoint and dismiss teachers; fix course of study; may purchase at the expense of the district text-books to be loaned to indigent children, who shall return them at the close of the session; may suspend or expel pupils; have supervision and control of school-houses and school-house sites. The clerk of the board of directors must make an annual report to the township treasurer or treasurers.2 In all school districts having a population of not less than 2,000 inhabitants and not governed by any special act in relation to free schools there is elected, instead of the directors provided by law in other districts, a board of education to consist of 6 members and 3 additional members for every 10,000 inhabitants, elected in the same manner as the school directors for 3-year terms; such boards have the power and it is their duty, in addition to the powers and duties of school directors: 1. To establish and maintain free schools not less than 6 nor more than 10 months in each year. 2. To repair, improve and furnish school-houses. 3. To buy or lease sites for school-houses with the necessary grounds. 4. To establish schools of different grades and make regulations for admission of pupils into the same. 5. To levy annual tax for the support and maintenance of free schools, but it is not lawful for such board to purchase or locate school-house sites, purchase, build, or move schoolhouses, or levy a tax to extend school beyond 10 months in each year except on petition of a majority of the voters of the district. 6. To examine and employ teachers and fix the amount of their salaries. 7. To employ a superintendent, or superintendents, when expedient. 8. To lay off the district into subdistricts. 9. To visit schools, to establish such by-laws, rules and regulations as they may deem necessary, and to prepare and publish an annual report. The township treasurer has charge of all funds and pays them ont on order of the board. In cities of more than 10,000 inhabitants the city treasurer holds the school funds subject to the order of the board of education, upon warrants countersigned by the mayor and city clerk." TEACHERS. No teacher shall be authorized to teach a common school who is not of good moral character, and who does not possess a valid certificate of qualification. Theso certificates are of two grades: First grade (highest), valid for two years, certifies that the holder is qualified to teach orthography, reading in English, penmanship, arithmetic, English grammar, modern geography, the history of the United States, the elements of the natural sciences, physiology, and the laws of health. is The second-grade certificate is valid for one year, and shows that the holder qualified to teach all of the following branches except the elements of the natural sciences, physiology, and the laws of health. These certificates are granted by the county superintendent, may be renewed by his indorsement, or may be revoked by him at any time. A diploma from the county normal school may be accepted by the county superintendent as sufficient evidence of qualification to entitle the holder to a first-class certificate. The State superintendent is authorized to grant State certificates to such teachers as may be found worthy to receive them, which shall be of perpetual validity in every county and school district in the State. (State certificates are granted only upon public examination.) Teachers must keep registers of their schools; and must also make a schedule of the names of all pupils under 21 years of age attending their schools (and when pupils reside in two or more districts, townships, or counties, separate schedules must be kept for each district, township or county), and deliver the same to the directors. Teachers' wages are payable monthly, and upon receipt of the schedules above mentioned; the directors make out and deliver to the teacher an order upon the township treasurer for the amount due said teacher.1 LOCAL TAXES. Counties may levy a tax to support the county normal schools; townships may levy a tax for the support of township high schools; and districts, cities and towns (by the directors or boards of education), levy taxes for school purposes. Sch. Law, sec. 55 et seq. 3 Ibid., sec. 80 et seq. 4Ibid., sec. 50 et seq. No district, however, shall levy a tax for building school-houses, in any one year, greater than 3 per cent. of the taxable property, except to pay indebtedness previously contracted.' INDIANA. ESTABLISHMENT OF THE FREE-SCHOOL SYSTEM. Intelligence and virtue being the safeguards of liberty and the bulwark of a free and good government, the State shall ever maintain a general, suitable, and efficient system of free schools, whereby all persons in the State between the ages of six and twenty-one years may receive gratuitous instruction. 2 TAXATION For support OF THIS SYSTEM. The General Assembly shall provide by general laws for the support of common schools by taxes, which shall never exceed, in any one year, two mills on the dollar on the taxable property of the State; and by an annual per capita tax of one dollar, to be assessed on every male inhabitant of this State over the age of twenty-one years: Provided, The General Assembly may, by general law, authorize school districts to levy, by a vote of the qualified electors of each district, a tax not to exceed five mills on the dollar in any one year for school purposes: Provided, further, That no such tax shall be appropriated to any other purpose, nor to any other district than that for which it was levied.3 SCHOOL DISTRICTS. The boundaries of school districts in counties of this State shall remain as established, except that the county court shall have power to alter the same whenever a majority of the citizens residing therein shall petition the court to do so. But no new school district shall be formed having less than 35 persons of scholastic age residing within the territory included in such new district, and no district now formed shall, by the formation of a new district, be reduced to less than 35 persons of scholastic age.1 STATE SUPERVISION. A State superintendent of public instruction, elected for two years by the qualified voters at a general election, takes office the 15th day of March succeeding his elcction, on taking and subscribing the oath prescribed by law. 5 He is charged with the administration of the system of public instruction and a general superintendence of the business relating to the common schools of the State, and of the school funds and school revenues set apart and appropriated for their support. 6 At each regular session of the General Assembly, on or before the 15th day of January, said superintendent must present a biennial report of his administration of the system of public instruction, with (1) a brief exhibit of his labors, experience, and observation as to the operation of the system, and the remedy for observed imperfections; (2) of the amount of permanent school funds; of their general condition, the revenue derived from them and from other sources; estimates for the following two years, and estimated value of all other property for school purposes; (3) of his plans for better organization of the schools, and for the increase, safe investinent, and better preservation of permanent school funds; (4) of the results of the year then closing, as compared with those of the year or years preceding, so as to indicate the progress made in public instruction; (5) must furnish such other information as to the schools, their funds, revenues, &c., as he may think will be of interest to the General Assembly." He is also to visit each county in the State at least once during his term of office, and examine the auditor's books and records as to the safety of school funds and revenues.8 The State superintendent must exercise such supervision over the school funds and revenues as may be necessary to ascertain their safety and secure their preservation and application to the proper object; and shall cause to be instituted in the name of the State of Indiana all suits necessary for the recovery of any portion of such funds or revenues.9 The superintendent is assisted by a State board of education, of which he is, ex officio, a member and president, his coadjutors in the board being the Governor, the presidents of the State University, of Purdue University, and of the State Normal School, with the superintendents of common schools of the largest cities of the State. as determined by the enumeration of children for school purposes reported by county superintendents. This board must elect one of its members secretary and treasurer, to have the custody of its records, papers, and effects; such records, papers, and effects, Act of Leg., March 15, 1859, ED 86-6 4 Code of 1885, secs. 6171, 6174. 5 Sch. Law, edition of 1885, secs. Ibid., sec. 4410. Ibid., sec. 4413, with minutes of proceedings, to be kept at the office of the superintendent, and to be open for his inspection.1 The State board takes cognizance of questions that arise in the practical administration of the school system, considering, discussing, and determining them. It also prepares questions for the examinations of teachers, prescribes the time and manner of their use by county superintendents, and may grant State certificates of qualification to teachers who on searching examination are found to possess eminent scholarship, professional ability, and good moral character.3 COUNTY SUPERINTENDENCE. Each county in this State has a county superintendent, appointed by the assembled township trustees biennially, on the first Monday in June, to examine applicants for teachers' licenses and grant them to such applicants as prove their worthiness, for 6 months, 12 months, 24 months, or 36 months, according to the ability to teach and govern displayed by the several ones applying. The 6-months license is merely a trialtest, and may not be renewed, while a 24-months one, run up at the next examination to one of 36 months, or 2 licenses for 36 months each in quick succession, may, if approved by the State board of education, issue in an 8-year professional license, good throughout the State. These examinations for licenses must be held by the superintendent at least once a month in open session, those granted to be limited in their operation to his county, except the 8-year ones approved by the State board, and all to be revocable for incompetency, immorality, cruelty, or general neglect of the business of the school. Each license granted is to be reported to the State superintendent, with indication of its grade, and with the name of the teacher to whom it has been given, distinguishing between males and females.* The more general duties of the county superintendent are to supervise the schools of his county, visit each one of them annually, with a view to increase their usefulness, attend and preside at the county teachers' institutes, carry out the orders and instructions of the State board of education and State superintendent, and serve as a medium between the latter and his subordinate school officers: Provided, That city schools having a superintendent employed by the city board, may, at the request of said board, be exempt front the supervision of the county superintendent. COUNTY BOARDS OF EDUCATION. Each county superintendent, with the trustees of the townships in his county, and the chairman of the school trustees of each town and city in it, constitute a county board of education, which meets semi-annually on the first week day of each May and September, to consider the general wants of the schools and school property of which the members of the board have charge. This board, the county superintendent presiding, attends to all matters relating to the purchase of school furniture, books, maps, charts, and libraries. Text-books adopted by it since March, 1877, are, as a rule, unchangeable for six years. Uniformity of text-books is held to be desirable, but is not required. Adopted books, however, must be used.5 The county boards may each adopt a course of study for their district schools, with rules and regulations for the government of these, but not make rules for incorporated cities. Prescribed studies are orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, geography, English grammar, physiology, history of the United States, good behavior, and such other branches as the advancement of the pupils may require or the trustees direct. As a rule, these must be taught in English, but the parents of 25 or more children in a school may demand the teaching of German to their children.6 SCHOOLS IN TOWNS AND CITIES. Each civil township and each incorporated town or city in this State is a distinct municipal corporation for school purposes, the trustee of the township and the trustees of towns and cities being school trustees, and performing the duties of clerk and treasurer for their several schools. The trustees may employ a superintendent for their schools. The common council of each city, except Indianapolis, and the board of trustees in each of the incorporated towns, elect, at their first meeting in June, three school trustees to hold office 1, 2, or 3 three years, as determined by lot at the time of organization, and thereafter elect annually one such trustee to hold office for 3 years. These trustees constitute the school board of the city or town, organizing by electing, within 5 days from their call to office, one of their number as president, one as secretary, and one as treasurer. The treasurer gives bond to the county auditor, with at least two sureties not members of the board, for not less than twice the money that may come into his hands; the president and secretary, bonds with like sureties, approved 1Sch. Law, edition of 1885, sec. 4420. Ibid., sec. 4421. Ibid., sec. 4422. Ibid., sec. 4436, and appended decisions 2, 4, 6. Ibid., sec. 4497. by the auditor, for at least one-third of the treasurer's bond. The county auditor, accepting such trustees, must see to their sufficiency to secure the school revenues which their offices may bring them, as well as the township and other revenues. The trustees must receive these revenues, keep accurate accounts of their receipts and expenditures of them, and render to the county commissioners, annually, the first Monday of August, a clear statement of each one for the school year ended the 31st day of the previous July.1 In Indianapolis, instead of school trustees, there is a board of school commissioners, one for each school district in the city, elected by the qualified electors in the district, to levy taxes for the support of the city schools, not to exceed 25 cents on $100 for grounds, buildings, and supplies, or 25 cents on each $100 for paying teachers, with one-fifth of a mill on $1 for free libraries in connection with the city schools. By a committee or officer of this board teachers may be examined for positions in the city schools and be licensed if found qualified. The board may also purchase grounds and school supplies, construct school buildings, employ and pay teachers, appoint superintendents, disburse through its treasurer moneys for school and library expenses, and enforce regulations for the grading of the city schools, for a course of instruction in them, and for due government and discipline-the members all to serve without any compensation. The tax levies made by order of the board must be certified by its president and secretary to the city clerk, who must collect them as other city taxes are collected, and once a month pay them over to the treasurer of the board. Taxes for school purposes collected by the county treasurer must be paid over by him to the treasurer of the board of school commissioners, and so must moneys distributed by county officers to which the common schools of the city may be entitled; these payments to the city treasurer to be made also once a month to the treasurer of the board of school commissioners. ENUMERATION AND ATTENDANCE. In this State attendance on the public schools has thus far been a boon, not a compulsion. All resident children, ascertained by an annual census to be between the ages of 6 and 21, are, unless married, entitled to enlistment and instruction in the schools of their respective townships, towns, and cities. Transfers to an adjoining county, township, town, or city, are allowed if asked for at the time of the annual enumeration; but in such cases the school money of the child must go with the child to the new place of enlistment and instruction.3 White and colored children must be enumerated in separate lists, and may be organized in separate schools, having all the rights, privileges, and advantages of other schools of their township, town, or city. Should such separate schools not be provided, the colored children may attend the public schools with white children; and if a child attending a school for colored youth can prove, by examination and certificate of the teacher, advancement enough for promotion to a higher grade than that afforded by the colored school, the trustee or trustees must see that the child is permitted to attend a school of like grade for whites without unjust discrimination on account of race or color. TAXATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS. A State tax is required to be annually assessed and collected, as State and county revenues are assessed and collected, for the support of a general system of common schools. The amount of this tax is 16 cents on each hundred dollars of taxable property, real and personal, and 50 cents on each taxable poll, without regard to the race or color of the owner. The trustees of townships, towns, and cities have also power to levy each a special tax for the construction, rent, or repair of school-houses; for providing furniture, school apparatus, and fuel; and for paying other necessary expenses of their schools, except tuition. No such tax may exceed 50 cents on each $100 of taxable property and a dollar on each poll, in any year. The income from such tax is termed the spe cial school revenue.5 Each county auditor must make the proper assessments of special school tax levied by the school trustees; must set down the amount of such tax on his tax list and duplicate thereof, as other taxes are set down, in appropriate columns; must extend such assessments to the taxable property and poll of persons transferred, according to the rate and levy thereof in the township, town, or city to which the transfers have been made; and such taxes must be collected by the county treasurer, as other taxes are collected, and be paid when collected to the treasurer for school purposes of the proper township, town, or city, on the warrant of the county auditor. To enable county auditors to assess this tax, county superintendents must report to the auditors the basis of the apportionment of school revenue for tuition, and a statement of transfers made for school purposes. Code of 1885, secs. 4489-4441, 4445. 2 Sch. Law, secs. 4457-4464. 4 Ibid., secs. 4465, 4466. Ibid., 1863, art. 4, secs. 4472, 4474. Ibid., secs. 4467, 4468. |