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The State and education.

CHAPTER IX

THE SUPPORT OF PUBLIC EDUCATION

57. REFERENCES

Knight, Land Grants for Education; Blackmar, History of State and Federal Aid to Education; Hough, Constitutional Provisions in Regard to Education in the Several States of the American Union (published by the United States Bureau of Education); Adams, Contributions to the Educational History of the United States (United States Bureau of Education); Boone, Education in the United States; Hart, Actual Government, ch. 28, "Education;" Knight, "Educational Progress in Ohio" (in Howe, Historical Collections of Ohio, I., 137149); White, "The School System of Ohio," in Educational Review, May, 1899; History of Education in the State of Ohio, A Centennial Volume, 1876; Hinsdale, “The History of Popular Education on the Western Reserve," in Ohio Archaeological and Historical Publications, VI.; Ohio School Reports; Nelson and Shaw, "The Consolidation of Country Schools," in American Monthly Review of Reviews, Dec., 1902; Knight and Commons, History of Higher Education in Ohio (United States Bureau of Education); Catalogues and Annual Reports of Ohio, Miami, Ohio State, and Wilberforce Universities.

Constitution of Ohio (1851), Art. VI., “Education;" Bates, Annotated Ohio Statutes, II. 2151-2260, "Schools," 2261-2280, "Colleges and Universities;" the Harrison School Code; Annual Reports of the State Commissioner of Common Schools.

58. GROWTH OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM

The functions of the State that we have thus far considered are the administration of justice and the exercise of the police and military powers. These functions are

essential to government of any form, whether popular, aristocratic, or royal. Another function that must be regarded as essential to a popular government, like our own, is the support and encouragement of general education. In such a government the safety of its free institutions depends on the intelligence of the people. Education also increases the prosperity of the people, and helps to prevent pauperism and crime. For political reasons, therefore, if for no other, the State must provide the means of education. It must see to it that educational opportunities are open to all, and thus make every career possible to talent. These grounds justify the State in the support of education of every grade.

sional

The initiative in the establishment of our public schools Congreswas taken by the Federal Government. The congres- provision sional Land Ordinance of 1785, which provided the for schools. system of township surveys, reserved one of the thirtysix parts or sections of each township for the support of public schools; and the Ordinance of 1787, as a guarantee of good government and the happiness of the people, declared "that schools and the means of education shall forever be encouraged." When Ohio was admitted into the Union, Congress increased the land endowment for school purposes by giving lands equal to one thirty-sixth of the United States Military District, the Virginia Reservation, the Western Reserve, and such territory in the State as might afterwards be purchased from the Indians.

schools,

The framers of the State constitution of 1802 acted Township on the policy thus begun by providing that the educa- and city tional privileges of the new State should be open to all; 1802-1850. but this clause was not lived up to, as we shall see. The organization of township schools during the early years

Township and city schools since 1850.

seems to have been left to the different rural communities, while city schools were organized under special charters, the earliest of which was granted in 1808. Popular education at the public expense did not, how ever, become the settled policy of the State until 1825. A law passed in that year imposed a general tax for the support of schools, and provided for their establishment in every township. Four years later the tax was increased, negro property owners were exempted, and colored children were excluded from the schools. Thus far there was no State supervision of schools, and no attempt to reduce them to a system. But in 1837 the office of State superintendent of common schools was instituted and maintained for three years; then it was abolished, but was revived again in 1843 under the title of State commissioner of common schools. Since that date the State has continued to exercise a supervision over the common schools through the commissioner. In 1848 one of the city charters, known as the "Akron law," was made general by an act of the legislature, which gave cities and villages the right to adopt it. In 1849 boards of education were empowered to establish high schools and schools of lower grades. By 1850 over sixty municipalities were enjoying graded schools.

The constitution of 1851 pledged the people of the State to preserve inviolate and undiminished all funds arising from donations made to the Commonwealth for educational purposes, and the legislature was empowered to increase these funds by taxation or otherwise for the benefit of a common school system. In 1853 a general school law was enacted. This law increased the school tax, placed the township schools under limited supervision of the township boards of education, provided for

the organization as separate districts of all cities and villages which, with the territory annexed, contained three hundred inhabitants, and gave boards of education the power to erect and equip school houses, and determine the taxes for school purposes. However, this law was inadequate to the educational needs of the rural communities. The city schools enjoyed the advantages of being graded and well supervised, while the township schools lacked these benefits.

This state of affairs remained substantially unchanged Recent deuntil 1892, when a great improvement was effected by velopments. the enactment of the "Workman” and “Boxwell" laws The Workman law gave the township board entire control of all the schools of the township, thus making possible the grading of these schools, the establishment of township high schools, and the appointment of competent supervisors. The Boxwell law, which was amended in 1902 and forms part of the new school code, provides high school facilities for pupils in country districts where no high school exists. This is done by conferring diplomas on all pupils who have satisfactorily passed the "Boxwell" examination at the completion of the course in the elementary schools of township and special districts. A diploma admits the holder to the district high school, if there is one; otherwise to one in the neighborhood, with tuition paid by the school board of the pupil's district. It should be added that a Boxwell diploma is good for admission to any high school in the State. The number of those who took the examination in 1902 was 14,346, of whom 4,607 received diplomas.

Centraliza

tion.

Classification

of high

schools.

Still another law for the improvement of rural schools was passed in 1900 and, in amended form, has been embodied in the new school code.1 This measure authorizes the abolition of the school sub-districts in every township where the majority of the electors vote for it. In this way townships are "centralized" for the purpose of supporting one or more central graded schools (sometimes called "union schools"). Such schools may include a high school course, if the township board of education so decides. The board of a centralized district is required to furnish transportation to and from school to all pupils living a half mile or more from the central building. The School Report for 1903 indicates that the number of townships fully centralized is seventy, and we are told that 150 others are partially centralized. Centralization has greatly enlarged the school attendance in many districts, and is facilitating the establishment of township high schools.2

The lack of a definition of a high school in the educational laws of the State has worked great detriment to the school system for many years. There have been all sorts of high schools, some of which were only elementary schools under another name. To bring a degree of order out of this chaos, the Brumbaugh law

1 See Sec. 3927-2.

2 The following quotation from a recent article on "The Consolidation of Country Schools" will be of interest in this connection: "This township centralization of schools began at Kingsville, Ashtabula County [Ohio], in 1894. Five teachers are employed in the Kingsville school, and to it are brought all the children of the township (an area of twenty-five square miles), with the exception of two districts. Four wagons are required at a total cost of $97 a month, for the nine months of

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