ors, etc.

This county board stands to the schools of the county in a relation similar to that of a State board to the schools of the State.

753. County Supervision.-In many of the States there is an officer to oversee the schools of a particular district, as the county or some similar territorial division. Commonly he is called a superintendent, but in New York and Michigan, a commissioner. He is sometimes elected by the popular vote, sometimes appointed by the county board. In Virginia, all local superintendents are appointed by the State board and the senate. The county superintendent visits schools, confers with teachers and school officers, sees that the laws are observed, and frequently examines and certificates teachers. Where the County system of government prevails, he has more power than in other States. Vermont is the only New England State that has established county supervision.

754. Town and District Administration.-Two principal varieties of local administration are found in the different States.

I. In some States the town or township is constituted a school district. It is divided for school provision and attendance, but not for administration. In Massachusetts, for example, the schools of the town-district are controlled by a school committee, under the direction of the town meeting; in Indiana, by the township trustee. This is commonly called the township-unit system.

2. Much more common than the township system is the district system. Here the school districts, into which the township is divided, are bodies politic and corporate, and elect their own boards of school managers, called school committees, directors, or boards.

755. City Administration.--Cities, and also towns of considerable size, generally have systems of schools separate and apart from those of the township and county in which they lie. These are organized under provisions of

the school law expressly relating to such cases, or under special charters granted by the Legislature. Such systems are controlled by a local board that is sometimes appointed by the mayor or the courts, but is commonly elected by the people. The local superintendent of schools is the executive officer of the board.

756. Certificating Teachers.-This is done in quite different ways in different States. State certificates are commonly awarded on examination by some authority, as a State Board of Examiners. Local certificates are awarded, also on examination, by the town school committee, by the county superintendent, or by a county board of examiners. Cities having a distinct school organization ordinarily have their own examining board.

It would be easy to show that the character of school administration has been materially influenced by the character of local government, as the Town, County, or Mixed system.

III. THE SCHOOL SUPPORT.

757. Public - Land Endowments of Common Schools.--The Land Ordinance of 1785, which extended to all lands that had been ceded to the United States and relinquished by the Indian tribes, contained in outline the existing system of public-land surveys and in germ the system of public-land endowments for common schools. It provided for the survey of the lands into townships six miles square, the mile-square sections to be numbered from south to north in ranges, and decreed: "There shall be reserved the lot number 16 of every township for the maintenance of public schools in the said township." The Government never owned the wild lands in the thirteen original States, in new States formed out of them, nor in Texas; but in all the public-land States, beginning with Ohio in 1802, 26 in number, section No. 16 in every township, has been dedicated to common schools. Moreover, since 1848 section 36 has also been devoted to the same purpose. The

title to these lands has always been vested in the State Legislatures in trust for the use named in the dedications, and the proceeds arising from their sale constitute permanent funds, the interest of which is applied to the purpose intended.

A CONGRESSIONAL TOWNSHIP ACCORDING TO THE PRESENT MODE OF NUMBERING SECTIONS.

6 5 4 3 2

1

7 8 9 10 11

12

640

18 17 16 15 14 13

19 20 21 22 23 24

30 29 28 27 26 25

31 32 33 34 35 36

758. The Educational-Grant Lands.-Previous to June 30, 1883, lands had been granted or reserved by Congress for common schools amounting to 67,893,919 acres; for universities, 1,655,520 acres; for agricultural colleges, 9,600,000; or a total of 78,659,439 acres. Lands and moneys that Congress has given the States without designating any particular object to which they should be devoted, have in many instances been partially or wholly applied to school purposes. Mention may be made of the salt-lands, swamp-lands, and special appropriations of 500,000 acres to each public-land State coming into the Union since 1841, percentages on lands sold within the States, and the United States Deposit Fund of 1836.

759. Funds Provided by the States. Many of the States that did not share in the bounty of Congress, have provided school funds out of their own resources, Connecticut leading the way in 1795. Perhaps the largest source of such funds has been the sale of lands belonging to the States.

760. School Income.-This is derived from a variety of sources, as follows:

2.

ways.

1. The income of permanent funds or endowments. State school taxes. These are levied in various Connecticut levies a tax on the property of the State amounting to $1.50 for every person between the ages of 5 and 16 years, and New Jersey one of $4.00 for every person between the ages of 4 and 18. Pennsylvania levies a lump sum of $5,000,000. New York levies a tax of one and one-fourth mills, Ohio and Michigan of one mill, and Nebraska of one and one-half mills, on the dollar upon the tax duplicate of the State. Indiana votes 16 cents and Kentucky 22 cents on every $100 of taxable property in the State. A number of the States, most of them in the South, levy poll taxes of small amounts for the same purpose.

3. Local taxes. In most States the great resource for school support is taxes imposed by the local authorities. These local taxes are of several kinds, as county, township, city, and district taxes. There is in some States a growing tendency to depend less than formerly upon local taxes and more upon State taxes.

4. Miscellaneous. Of these the variety is considerable. Fines, license moneys, penalties, taxes on banks, etc., are utilized for school purposes in different States.

761. Modes of Distributing Funds.-These cannot be described in small compass, but the following points may be noted:

I. In the first States receiving lands from Congress for common schools, each Congressional township has its own special fund arising from its own section; but in the later States, beginning with Michi

gan, in 1837, there is one consolidated fund from which distribution is made to the counties and townships.

2. The common mode of distributing the State funds, no matter from what source it comes, with the above modification, is for the State to distribute to the counties, and the counties to the townships or districts, according to the number of persons between certain specified ages, as 4 and 16, 5 and 18, or 6 and 21.

3. It is not uncommon to pay over funds arising from special sources, as fines and licenses, to the county, township, or city in which they are collected.

762. Free Schools.—Formerly even the so-called public schools were supported in part by means of rate bills, or tuition charges, assessed upon those who used the schools. But such fees are now almost wholly, if not wholly, unknown in the United States. Charges are sometimes made for instruction in higher branches in high schools, and in universities, but the State common schools are now practically free. The principle is generally admitted that the property of the State should educate the youth of the State. It has, however, been found necessary in most States to protect the public schools and school funds against sectarian religious zeal. Both these ends the constitution of Ohio secures by this provision: "The General Assembly shall make such provision, by taxation or otherwise, as, with the interest arising from the school trust-fund, will secure a thorough and efficient system of common schools throughout the State, but no religious or other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right to, or control of, any part of the school funds of the State."

NOTE.—It is a very common misapprehension that the educational land grant policy of the National Government originated in the Ordinance of 1787. That document is wholly silent on the subject of educational lands. The misapprehension has arisen from confounding this Ordinance with earlier legislation. The Ordinance says in respect to education merely that schools and means of education shall forever be encouraged. Grants for common school purposes are first heard of in the Land Ordinance of 1785, and University grants in the sale to the Ohio Company in 1787. Both of these acts of legislation were of merely local application. But they recognized the principle of educational land grants, and this principle has been progressively applied to every public-land State on or before its admission to the Union. The grants are not traceable to any single act of legislation, but have been made in single acts of specific application.-See Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1892-93, Vol. II, pp. 1268–1288, for an historical and statistical view of the subject.