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TABLE.-Population, Taxable Property, Schools, Illiteracy, &c.

IOWA.

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Iowa was organized as a territory in 1838 and admitted into the Union in 1846, with an area of 55,045 sq. m., and a population in 1850 of 192,214, which has increased to 1,191,792 in 1870, with taxable property valued at $302,515,418. The constitution of 1846 provides for the inviolability of the school and university funds, and the election by the people of a superintendent of pul lic instruction, to hold his office for three years, directs the : General Assembly to encourage intellectual, scientific, moral, and agricultural improvements, and provide a system of common schools, by which a school shall be kept up and supported in cach school district at least three months in every year. The amended constitution of 1857 goes into much detail, respecting the powers of a Board of Education for the State of Iowa,' to which was given 'full power to legislate and make all needful rules and regulations in relation to common schools, and other educational institutions aided from the school or university funds, subject to the revision and repeal of the General Assembly.' Power was reserved to the General Assembly to abolish or reorganize the Board of Education at any time after 1863, and provide for the educational interests of the State in such manner as shall seem to them best and proper. The action of the Board, instituted according to the provisions of this constitution, did not prove acceptable to the people, and in 1864 the school system was reorganized by the General Assembly.

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By the act of 1863 and its subsequent amendments the school authorities are: (1,) State Superintendent, elected by the people for two years; (2,) County Superintendents, one for each county, elected for two years; (3,) Township Board of Directors, made up of three or more sub-directors for each township, who have the management of the township school fund; and (4,) Sub-director for each sub-district, for the local management of the school.

According to the report of 1871, there were 1,260 district townships, 344 independent districts (cities and villages), and 7,716 sub-districts, with 7,823 schools, of which 289 are graded, in which were 40 high schools; out of 460,629 school population (between 5 and 21 years) 341,938 attended school during the year, under 14,070 different teachers, at an aggregate salary of $1,900,893, in 7,594 school houses, erected at a cost of $6,764,551, in which was school apparatus to the value of $104,359. In 1871, 7,500 teachers

met in 76 teachers' institutes. According to the census of 1870 there were 24,115 persons over 10 could not read, and 45,671 (24,979 natives) could not write.

KANSAS.

Kansas organized as a Territory in 1854, was after many tribulations, admitted as a State in 1859, with an area of 91,318 sq. m., and a population in 1860 of 107,206, which had increased in 1870 to 364,399, and a taxable property of $92,125,861. Total value of farms and live stock in 1870 was $126,992,538.

The constitution adopted in 1858, provides for a superintendent of public instruction for the State, and one for each county, and directs the legislature to 'encourage the promotion of intellectual, moral, scientific and agricultural improvement by establishing a uniform system of common schools, and schools of higher grade, embracing normal, preparatory, collegiate and university departments.' 'The proceeds of lands donated by the United States or the State for the support of schools, and the 500,000 acres granted to the new State in 1841, and all estates of persons dying without heirs or will, and such per cent. as may be granted by Congress on the sale of lands in this State are made a perpetual school fund, which shall not be diminished, the interest of which with such other means as the legislature may furnish by tax or otherwise, shall be inviolably appropriated to the support of common schools.' 'Provision shall be made by law for a State University for the promotion of literature and the arts and sciences, including a normal and agricultural department,' and 'no religious sect or sects shall ever control any part of the common school or university funds of the State.'

Schools are organized on the basis of cities (incorporated by general law), and of the congressional township distribution of territory. Each city by general law has a board of education somewhat differently constituted, but all with full powers to establish and maintain public schools according to its population, while each congressional township, embracing an area of six miles square, is constituted one school district. Each district is divided into sub-districts of any convenient size, by the county superintendent. Each sub-district elects a director, and all the directors of sub-districts constitute a school district board for the township, with power to levy taxes, locate, and erect school-houses, employ teachers for the schools of the township, and with power to erect a higher school for the older children of all the sub-districts.

The school authorities are: (1.) State Superintendent, elected for two years, with the usual powers; (2.) County Superintendents, one for each county, elected for two years, with power to divide the congressional townships into districts, examine (when associated

with two competent persons appointed by the County Commissioners, who together constitute a County Board of Examiners,) teachers, hold institutes, and generally administer the system for the county; (3,) Township Boards, composed of a director from each sub-district into which the township district is divided; (4) District Boards, composed of the director, clerk, and treasurer; (5) City Boards of Education, charged with full powers of local management of public schools in the several incorporated cities.

According to the report of the superintendent for 1872 there were 3,419 sub-districts, containing 165,982 persons between the ages of 5 and 21 years. Of this number 106,663 were enrolled in the public schools, with an average daily attendance of 61,538 pupils under 3,835 different teachers (2,048 females), to whom was paid for their services $596,611, The entire expenditure on account of public schools in 1871 was $1,701,950, of which $217,810 was received from the State (interest from the permanent fund and taxes), $22,680 from county funds, $822,644 from district tax, and $431,382 from tuition and other sources. The total number of school-houses for 3,419 organized districts was 2,437, valued, with lots and apparatus, at $2,845,262. Beside the public schools there are two State Normal Schools (at Emporia and Leavenworth), with buildings erected at a cost of $140,000.

Out of section 16, and 36 in each township, and the 500,000 acres (total nearly 3,000,000 acres), only $759,095 has yet been converted into a permanent school fund. The university received 46,000 acres, out of which only $10,000 has yet been realized as a permanent fund. The grounds and improvements have cost $164,000, mainly contributed by the city of Lawrence. The Agricultural College receives $90,000 from Congressional grants, out of which $189,745 have been realized, leaving land unsold estimated at $180,797, or a total of $378,542. The State University was crippled at the start by the incorporation of two denominational institutions (Baker University and Washburne College), on which $200,000 have already been expended.

The census of 1870 returns a school attendance of 63,183, out of a school population (between the ages of 5 and 18) of 108,710, with 16,369 persons 24,550 who could not write. In the table of schools there were 1,663 public schools (1 normal, 4 high, 1 grammar, 118 graded, 1,539 ungraded), with 1,955 teachers; 2 universities with 13 teachers (1 female), and 292 students; 5 special schools (1 agricultural, 2 commercial, 1 blind, 1 deaf mutes), with 277 pupils.

10 years of age who could not read, and

KENTUCKY.

Kentucky was settled from Virginia, of which it was part until 1791, when it was admitted as a State, with a population of 73,077, which in 1870 had increased to 1,321,011. In its educational and economical policy it followed the mother State-relying on colleges, academies, and private tutors for families who could pay, and making no general provision for common schools until 1821, when a Literary Fund was established out of one-half of the clear profits of the Bank of the Commonwealth.

From 1783 to 1798, upward of thirty academies and seminaries, including Transylvania Seminary, were incorporated, and in the year last named, a general law appropriating all vacant and unappropriated land in a large section of the State to the endowment of these higher institutions was passed, with a preamble setting forth that it is expedient for the public happiness that those persons whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow-citizens, and to aid and accelerate this most desirable purpose, by institutions for their education, is one of the first duties of every wise government. By this and subsequent acts, creating at least one such seminary of liberal education in each county, 6,000 acres of public lands, and in 1820 all fines and forfeitures in the several counties, were appropriated to these institutions.

In 1821, in the act to create the Literary Fund, the county courts were instructed to lay off their respective counties into any number of school districts, not less than four, nor more than sixteen, in each; and the tax commissioners were directed to take down in their book of taxable property the number of all children in each school district as above established, and communicate the same to the county auditor. The clerks of the county courts and the auditors were instructed to communicate the boundaries of the districts and the number of children to a State Board, consisting of six commissioners, to enable them to digest a plan of schools of common education suited to the condition of the State.' This Board presented, in 1822, a report drawn up by Amos Kendall, at that time a teacher in Frankfort, and containing valuable letters from Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, James Madison, Robert Y. Hayne, and others, respecting common schools in their respective States. The plan was not adopted, and in its stead, in 1825, a system of private schools was established by incorporating any

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