Monographs on education in the United States

Butler, Nicholas Murray
Monographs on education

DIVISION OF EXHIBITS
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
\m.Ks A f, EXPOSITION, ST. Louis, 1904

MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION

IN THE

UNITED STATES

KDITED /

NICHOLAS, MURRAY BUTLER
•'</. nt of Columbia University in the. City of A>w York

1

EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

ANDREW SLOAN DRAPER
President of the University of Illiwi*

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CATION .;N THE UNITED STATES

-

\

DIVISION OF EXHIBITS

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION

UNIVERSAL EXPOSITION, ST. Louis, 1904

MONOGRAPHS ON EDUCATION

IN THE

UNITED STATBS

'

EDITED BY

NICHOLAS MURRAY BUTLER
President of Columbia University in the City of New York

\

EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION

AND

ADMINISTRATION

BY

ANDREW SLOAN DRAPER
President of the University of Illinois

THIS MONOGRAPH is PRINTED FOR LIMITED DISTRIBUTION BY THE LOUISIANA PURCHASE

EXPOSITION COMPANY

LA

N/'l

COPYRIGHT BY

J. B. LYON COMPANY

1899

COPYRIGHT BY

J. B. LYON COMPANY

1904

J. B. LVON COMPANY

PRINTERS AND BINDERS

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EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND
ADMINISTRATION

INTRODUCTORY

Any treatment of the legal organization and the authori-
tative methods of administration by which the great public
educational system of the United States is carried on must
almost necessarily be opened by a statement of the salient
points in the evolution of that system, for the form of organi-
zation and the laws governing the operations of the schools
have not preceded, but followed and been determined by the
educational movements of the people and the necessities of
the case.

The first white settlers who came to America in the early
part of the seventeenth century were from the European
peoples, who were more advanced in civilization than any
others in the world. Each of the nations first represented
had already made some progress in the direction of popular
education. Such educational ideals as these different peo-
ples possessed had resulted from historic causes, and were
very unlike. The influences more potent than any others in
determining the character of American civic institutions
were English and Dutch. The English government was a
constitutional monarchy, but still a monarchy, and the con-
stitutional limitations were neither so many nor so strong
as later popular revolutions have made them. English
thought accepted class distinctions among the people. The
advantages of education were for the favored class, the
nobility. The common people expected little. Colleges
and fitting schools were maintained for the training of young
men of noble birth for places under the government and in
the government church, but there were no common schools
for all. The nobility were opposed to general education lest

4 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [4

the masses would come to recognize God-given rights and
demand them, and the masses were yet too illiterate to
understand and enforce the inalienable rights of human
nature. The Dutch had gone farther than the English ;
they had just waged a long and dreadful and successful war
for liberty, and with all its horrors war has uniformly sharp-
ened the intelligence of a people. This war for civil and
religious liberty had enlarged their freedom and quickened
their activities ; they had become the greatest sailors and the
foremost manufacturers in the world ; and they had estab-
lished the government policy of maintaining not only col-
leges, but common schools for all.

The first permanent white settlers in the United States
were English and Dutch. In the beginning they had no
thought of ceasing to be Englishmen and loyal subjects of the
English monarchy, or Dutchmen with permanent fellowship
in the Dutch Republic. They each brought their national
educational ideas with them. Each people was strongly
influenced by religious feelings, and life in a new land inten-
sified those feelings. The English in Massachusetts were
at the beginning very like the English in England. The
larger and wealthier and more truly English colony recog-
nized class distinctions and followed the English educational
policy. They first set up a college to train their aristocracy
for places in the state and the church, and for a considerable
time their ministers, either at the church or in the homes,
taught the children enough to read the Bible and acquire the
catechism. The Dutch, more democratic, with smaller num-
bers and less means, and more dependent upon their govern-
ment over the sea, at once set up elementary schools at public
cost and common to all. In a few years the English over-
threw the little Dutch government and almost obliterated
the elementary schools. For a century the English royal
governors and the Dutch colonial legislatures struggled
over the matter of common schools. The government was
too strong for the humble people ; little educational progress
was made. Near the close of that century the government

el EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 5

established King's college to educate sons of noble birth
and prevent the spread of republican ideas. The Revolu-
tion of 1776 changed all. In fighting together for national
independence the different peoples assimilated and became
Americans in the new sense. They not only combined their
forces in war, but in peace they combined the enlarged intel-
ligence which the war had brought to them. They realized
that education in all its phases and grades must be encour-
aged, and, so far as practicable, made universal under a democ-
racy in which the rights of opportunity were to be equal.

But while they began to be interested in education it was
because they saw that schools would help the individual and
so promote virtue and extend religion. It did not occur to
them at the first that the safety of the new form of govern-
ment was associated with the diffusion of learning among all
the people. This is not strange, for the suffrage was not
universal at the beginning of independent government in
America. Therefore, while the desirability of education was
recognized, it was understood to be the function of parents
to provide it for their children, or of guardians and masters
to extend it to their wards and apprentices. When schools
were first established they were partnership affairs between
people who had children in their care, and for their con-
venience. They apportioned the expense among themselves ;
such as had no children were without much concern about
the matter.

It was soon seen that many who had children to educate
would neglect them in order to avoid the expense of con-
tributing to the support of the school. Aside from this the
schools were very indifferent affairs. If they were to be of
any account they must have recognition and encouragement
from government. It was easily conceived to be a function
of government to encourage schools. Encouragement was
given by official and legislative declarations in their behalf
and then by authorizing townships to use funds derived from
excise fees and other sources for the benefit of the schools
when not otherwise needed. It was a greater step to attempt

6 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [6

to say that townships should require people, who had chil-
dren to educate, to maintain schools, and a still greater one
to adopt the principle that every child was entitled to at least
an elementary education as of right, that this was as much
for the safety of the state as for the good of the child, that
therefore the state was bound to see that schools were pro-
vided for all, and that all the property of all the people
should contribute alike to their support. Perhaps it was
even a greater step to provide secondary and collegiate, and
in many cases professional and technical, training at the
public cost. But these great positions were in time firmly
taken.

There was nothing like an educational system in the
United States at the beginning of the nineteenth century.
At that time there were four or five colleges, here and there
a private academy or fitting school, and elementary schools
of indifferent character in the cities and the thinly settled
towns. In the course of the century a great system of
schools has come to cover the land. It is free and flexible,
adaptable to local conditions, and yet it possesses most of
the elements of a complete and symmetrical system. The
parts or grades of this system may perhaps be designated
as follows :

a) Free public elementary schools in reach of every home
in the land.

b) Free public high schools, or secondary schools, in
every considerable town.

c) Free land grant colleges, with special reference to the
agricultural and mechanical arts, in all the states.

d) Free state universities in practically all of the southern
states and all the states west of Pennsylvania.

e) Free normal schools, or training schools for teachers,
in practically every state.

f) Free schools for defectives, in substantially all of the
states.

g) National academies for training officers for the army
and navy.

7~| EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 7

h) A vast number of private kindergartens, music and
art schools, commercial schools, industrial schools, profes-
sional schools, denominational colleges, with a half dozen
leading and privately endowed universities.

This mighty educational system has developed with the
growth of towns and cities and states. It has been shaped
by the advancing sagacity of the people. Above all other
of American civic institutions, it has been the one most
expressive of the popular will and the common purposes.
Everywhere it is held in the control of the people, and so far
as practicable in the control of local assemblages. While
the tendencies of later years have, from necessities, been
towards centralization of management, the conspicuous char-
acteristic of the systems has always been the extent to which
the elementary and secondary schools are controlled and
directed by each community. The inherent and universal
disposition in this direction has favored general school laws
and yielded to centralized administration only so far as has
come to be necessary to life, efficiency and growth. But
circumstances have made this necessary to a very consider-
able extent.

Bearing in mind the historic facts touching the develop-
ment of the school system, we may proceed to consider the
legal organization and authoritative scheme of administra-
tion which have arisen therefrom. We will begin with the
most elementary and decentralized form of organization and
proceed to the more general and concentrated ones, following
the steps which have marked the growth of the system in a
general way, but with no thought of tracing the particular
lines of educational advancement in the several states.

THE SCHOOL DISTRICT

The " school district " is the oldest and the most primary
form of school organization. Indeed, it is the smallest civil
division of our political system. It resulted from the natural
disposition of neighboring families to associate together for
the maintenance of a school. Later it was recognized by

8 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [8

law and given some legal functions and responsibilities.
Its territorial extent is no larger than will permit of all the
children attending a single school, although it sometimes
happens that in sparsely settled country the children have to
go several miles to school. It ordinarily accommodates but
a few families : districts have had legal existence with but
one family in each : many with not more than a half dozen
families. It is better adapted to the circumstances of the
country than to those of the town or city. A different form
has been provided for the considerable towns, and still
another for the cities as they have developed. The " district
system " is in operation in most of the states, and in such
the number of districts extends into the thousands. In New
York, for example, there are over eleven thousand and in
Illinois over twelve thousand school districts.

The government of the school district is the most simple
and democratic that can be imagined. It is controlled by
school meetings composed of the resident legal voters. In
many of the states women have been constituted legal voters
at school meetings. These meetings are held at least
annually and as much oftener as may be desired. They
may vote needed repairs to the primitive schoolhouse and
desirable appliances for the school. They may decide to
erect a new schoolhouse. They may elect officers, one or
more, commonly called trustees or directors, who must carry
out their directions and who are required by law to employ
the teacher and have general oversight of the school.
Although the law ordinarily gives the trustees free discre-
tion in the appointment of teachers, provided only that a
person duly certificated must be appointed, yet it not infre-
quently happens that the district controls the selection of
the teacher through the election of trustees with known
preferences.

Much has been said against the district system, and doubt-
less much that has been said has been justified. At the
same time it cannot be denied that the system has had much
to commend it. It has suited the conditions of country life :

o] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 9

it has resulted in schools adapted to the thought and wants
of farming people : it has done something to educate the
people themselves, parents as well as children, in civic spirit
and patriotism : and it has afforded a meeting place for the
people within comfortable reach of every home. The school
has not always been the best, but it has been ordinarily as
good as a free and primitive people would sustain or could
profit by. It is true that the teachers have generally
been young and inexperienced, but they have not yet been
trained into mechanical automatons, and as a rule they have
been the most promising young people in the world, the
ones who, a few years later, have been the makers of opinion
and the leaders of action upon a considerable field. Cer-
tainly the work has lacked system, continuity and progres-
siveness, the pupils have commenced at the same place in the
book many times and never advanced a great distance, but,
on the other hand, the children in the country schools have
had the home training and the free, natural life which has
developed strong qualities in character and individual initia-
tive in large measure, and so have not suffered seriously, in
comparison with the children living in the towns. The dis-
trict system has sufficed well for them and it has otherwise
been of much advantage to the people ; and with all its
shortcomings, or the abuses that are common where it pre-
vails, they are hardly worse than are found under more pre-
tentious systems. Surely the " American District School
System " is to be spoken of with respect, for it has exerted a
marked influence upon our citizenship, and has given strong
and wholesome impulses in all the affairs of the nation.

THE TOWNSHIP SYSTEM

While in the first half of the century the general educa-
tional purpose seems to have been to make the district sys-
tem more perfect, the tendency in the latter half has unmis-
takably been to merge it into a more pretentious organization,
covering a larger area, and capable of larger undertakings.
The cause of this has been the desire for larger schools,

IO EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION TIO

taught by teachers better prepared, and capable of broader
and better work, as well as the purpose to distribute educa-
tional advantages more evenly to all the people. Accord-
ingly, in most of the states there has been a serious discus-
sion of the relative advantages of the township as against
the district system, and in quite a number of the states the
former has already supplanted the latter.

The township system makes the township the unit of
school government. It is administered by officers chosen at
annual town meetings, or sometimes by central boards, the
members of which are chosen by the electors of different
sub-districts. In any event, the board has charge of all the
elementary schools of the township, and if there is one, as
is frequently the case, of the township high school. The
board, following the different statutes governing them and
the authorized directions of the township school electors,
provides the buildings and cares for them, supplies the
needed furnishings and appliances, employs the teachers, and
regulates the general operations of the school.

It is at once seen that the township system is much less
formally democratic and much more centralized than the dis-
trict system. It has doubtless produced better schools and
schools of more uniform excellence. One of its most benefi-
cent influences has been the multiplication of township high
schools, in which all the children of the township have had
equality of rights. These high schools have given an uplift-
ing stimulus to all the elementary schools of the township,
and have led all the children to see that the work of the
local school is not all there is of education, and given many
of them ambitions to master the course of the secondary
school.

Very much has been said upon the subject, but it is not
necessary to go into it at length here. The township sys-
tem has many advantages over the district system for a people
who are ready for it. It is adapted to the development and
to the administration of a higher grade of schools and very
likely to better schools of all grades. It is a step, and an

Il] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION II

important step, towards that general centralization in man-
agement and greater uniformity of improved methods of
supervision and instruction now so manifest throughout the
school system of the United States.

THE COUNTY SYSTEM

The southern states, most if not all of them, have a
county system of school administration. This has not
resulted from the development of the school system, but
from the general system of county rather than township
government prevalent in all the affairs of the southern
states from the beginning, and easily traceable to historic
causes. The county is the unit "of school government in
the southern states, because it has been the unit of all
government.

The county system is not constituted identically in all of
the southern states of the union. In Georgia, for example,
the grand jury of each county selects from the freeholders
five persons to comprise the county board of education ; in
North Carolina the justices of the peace and county com-
missioners of each county appoint such a county board of
education, while in Florida such a board is elected by the
people biennially, and in some states a county commissioner
or superintendent of schools is the responsible authority for
managing the schools of the county. In Georgia " each
county shall constitute one school district," but in several of
the states the county board or superintendent divides the
territory into sub-districts and appoints trustees or directors
in each. In the latter case the local trustees seem to be
ministerial officers carrying out the policy of the county
board. In any case the unit of territory for the administra-
tion of the schools is the county, and county officials locate
sites, provide buildings, select text-books, prescribe the
course of work, examine and appoint teachers, and do all the
things which are within the functions of district or township
trustees or city boards of education in the northern states.

12 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [l2

THE CITY SCHOOL SYSTEMS

As communities have increased in population they have
outgrown any primary or elementary system of organization
for school purposes. Laws of general application or com-
mon usage in a county sparsely settled would not suffice for
a city of many thousands of people. In such cities the peo-
ple could not meet to fix the policies and manage the busi-
ness of the schools : they could not meet even to choose
officers to manage the schools. So the state legislatures
have made special laws to meet the circumstances of the
larger places. In some states these laws are uniform for all
cities of a certain class, that is, cities having populations of
about the same number, but more often each city has gone
to the legislature and procured the enactment of such stat-
utes as seemed suited to the immediate circumstances.

Because of this there is no uniform or general system of
public school administration in the American cities. Of
course there are some points of similarity. In nearly every
case there is a board of education charged with the manage-
ment of the schools, but these boards are constituted in
almost as many different ways as there are different cities,
and their legal functions are as diverse as there is diversity
in cities. In the city of Buffalo, New York state, the school
affairs are managed by a committee appointed by the city
council, but happily this case stands by itself, and the evil
consequences possible under such a scheme have been much
ameliorated in this particular case for the last half dozen
years by a most excellent superintendent of schools, elected
by the people of that city.

In the greater number of cities the boards of education
are elected by the people, in some cases on a general city
ticket, and again by wards or sub-districts ; in some places at
a general or municipal election, and in others at elections
held for the particular purpose. But in many cities, and
particularly the larger ones, the boards are appointed by
the mayor alone, or by the mayor and city council acting

13] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 13

jointly. In the city of Philadelphia the board is appointed
by the city judges, in Pittsburgh by local directors, and in
New Orleans by the state board of education. In a few
instances the board is appointed by the city councils.

In the city of Cleveland, Ohio, the board of education
consists of two branches : a school director elected by the
people for the term of two years, and a school council of
seven members, likewise elected by the people in three groups
with terms of three years each. This scheme was devised
in 1892 by prominent business men of the city, and, having
been enacted by the legislature, has been in very satisfac-
tory operation since.

It must be said that there has been much dissatisfaction
with the way school affairs have been managed in the larger
cities. In the smaller places, even in cities of a hundred
thousand or more inhabitants, matters have gone well enough
as a general rule, but in the greater cities there have been
many and serious complaints of the misuse of funds, of
neglect of property, of the appointment of unfit teachers,
and of general incapacity, or worse, on the part of the
boards. Of course it is notorious that the public business
of American cities has very commonly been badly managed.
It would not be true to say that the business of the schools
has suffered as seriously as municipal business, but it cer-
tainly has been managed badly enough.

All this has come from the amounts of money that are
involved and the number of appointments that are con-
stantly to be made. More than a hundred millions of
dollars are paid annually for teachers' wages alone in the
United States. People who are needy have sought positions
as teachers without much reference to preparation, and the
kindly disposed have aided them without any apparent appre-
ciation of the injury they were doing to the highest interests
of their neighbors. Men engaged in managing the organi-
zations of the different political parties have undertaken to
control appointments in the interests of their party machines.
And the downright scoundrels have infested the school
organization in some places for the sake of plunder.

14 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [14

As cities have grown in size and multiplied in numbers,
the more scandal there has been. And American cities have
grown marvelously. In 1790 there was but one having
between eight and twelve thousand inhabitants: in 1890
there were one hundred and forty-seven such. By the census
of the latter year there were fourteen cities having between
seventy-five thousand and one hundred and twenty-five thou-
sand inhabitants. Now there are certainly a dozen with
more than a half million of people each. The aggregate
population of a dozen cities exceeds the aggregate popula-
tion of twenty states. But if the troubles have multiplied
and intensified as the cities have grown, so has the determi-
nation of the people strengthened to remedy the difficulties.

There has been no more decided and no more healthy
educational movement in the United States in recent years,
and none with greater or more strongly intrenched obstacles
in its way, than that for better school organization and
administration in the larger cities. Its particular features
or objective points are pointed out by the committee of fif-
teen of the National educational association in the following
declarations :

" In concluding this portion of the report, the committee
indicates briefly the principles which must necessarily be
observed in framing a plan of organization and government
in a large city school system.

First. The affairs of the school should not be mixed up
with partisan contests or municipal business.

Second. There should be a sharp distinction between leg-
islative functions and executive duties.

Third. Legislative functions should be clearly fixed by
statute and be exercised by a comparatively small board,
each member of which is representative of the whole city.
This board, within statutory limitations, should determine
the policy of the system, levy taxes, and control the expendi-
tures. It should make no appointments. Every act should
be by a recorded resolution. It seems preferable that this
board be created by appointment rather than election, and

icjj EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 15

that it be constituted of two branches acting against each
other.

Fourth. Administration should be separated into two
great independent departments, one of which manages the
business interests and the other of which supervises the
instruction. Each of these should be wholly directed by a
single official who is vested with ample authority and charged
with full responsibility for sound administration.

Fifth. The chief executive officer on the business side
should be charged with the care of all property and with the
duty of keeping it in suitable condition : he should provide
all necessary furnishings and appliances : he should make all
agreements and see that they are properly performed : he
should appoint all assistants, janitors, and workmen. In a
word, he should do all that the law contemplates and all that
the board authorizes, concerning the business affairs of the
school system, and when anything goes wrong he should
answer for it. He may be appointed by the board, but we
think it preferable that he be chosen in the same way the
members of the board are chosen, and be given a veto upon
the acts of the board.

Sixth. The chief executive officer of the department of
instruction should be given a long term and may be appointed
by the board. If the board is constituted of two branches,
he should be nominated by the business executive and con-
firmed by the legislative branch. Once appointed he should
be independent. He should appoint all authorized assist-
ants and teachers from an eligible list to be constituted as
provided by law. He should assign to duties and discon-
tinue services for cause, at his discretion. He should deter-
mine all matters relating to instruction. He should be
charged with the responsibility of developing a professional
and enthusiastic teaching force, and of making all the teach-
ing scientific and forceful. He must perfect the organization
of his department and make and carry out plans to accom-
plish this. If he cannot do this in a reasonable time he
should be superseded by one who can,"

1 6 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [16

It ought to be said before passing from this phase of the
subject that these principles have made much headway, and
that the promise is excellent. There is not a city of any
importance in the country in which they are not under dis-
cussion, and there are few in which some of them have not
been adopted and put in operation.

The powers of the city boards of education are very
broad, almost without limits as to the management of the
schools. They commonly do everything but decide the
amount of money which shall be raised for the schools, and
in some cases even that high prerogative is left to them.
They purchase new sites, determine the plans and erect new
buildings, provide for maintenance, appoint officers and
teachers, fix salaries, make promotions, and, acting within
very few and slight constitutional or statutory limitations,
enact all of the regulations for the control of the vast system.

The high powers, cheerfully given by the people to school
boards, have arisen from the earnest desire that the schools
shall be independent and the teaching of the best. Of
course these independent and large prerogatives are exceed-
ingly advantageous to educational progress when exercised
by good men : when they fall into the hands of weak or bad
men they are equally capable of being put to the worst uses.
And it is not to be disguised that in some of the foremost
cities they have fallen into some hands which are corrupt,
but more often into the hands of men of excellent personal
character, but who do not see the importance of applying
pedagogical principles to instruction, and who are, in one
way or another, used by designing persons for partizan, self-
ish or corrupt purposes. Of course it is not to be implied
that there are not to be found in every school board men or
women with clear heads and stout hearts who understand the
essential principles of sound school administration and are
courageously contending for them. Nor must the serious
difficulty of holding together pupils from such widely differ-
ent homes in common schools be lost sight of. And again,
the obstacles in the way of choosing and training a teaching

17] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION \J

force of thousands of persons, and of continually energizing
the entire body with new pedagogical life, must be remem-
bered. And yet again, the dangers of corruption where
millions of dollars are being annually disbursed by boards
which are practically independent, are apparent. But, not-
withstanding all of the hindrances, the issue is being joined
and the battle will be fought out to a successful result.
There can be but one outcome. The forces of decency and
progress always prevail in the end.

The demands of the intelligent and sincere friends of
popular education in our great cities are for a more scientific
plan of organization which shall separate legislative and
executive functions, which shall put the interests of teachers
upon the merit basis and leave them free to apply pedagogi-
cal principles to the instruction, which shall give authority to
do what is needed and protect officers and teachers, while it
locates responsibility and provides the way for ousting the
incompetent or the corrupt. The trouble has been that the
boards were independent and the machine so ponderous and
the prerogatives and responsibilities of officials so confused
that people who were aggrieved could not get a hearing or
could not secure redress, perhaps for the reason that no one
official had the power to afford redress. What is demanded
and what is apparently coming is a more perfect system,
which will give one credit for good work in the schools and
enable a parent to point his finger at and procure the dis-
missal of one who inflicts upon his child a school room
which is not wholesome and healthful, or a teacher who is
physically, pedagogically or morally unfit to train his child.

THE STATES AND THE SCHOOLS

Since the American school system has come to be sup-
ported wholly by taxation, it has come to depend upon the
exercise of a sovereign power. In the United States the
sovereign powers are not all lodged in one place. Such as
have not been ceded to the general government are retained
by the states. The provision and supervision of schools is
2

1 8 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [18

one of these. Hence the school system, while marked by
many characteristics which are common throughout the
country, has a legal organization peculiar to each state.

The dependence upon state authority which has thus
arisen has gone farther than anything else towards the
development of a system and towards the equalization of
school privileges to the people of the same state. Naturally
indisposed to relinquish the management of their own school
affairs in their own way, they have been obliged to bow to
the authority of their states, in so far as the state saw fit to
assert its authority, because they could not act without it, as
counties, cities, townships and districts have no power what-
ever to levy taxes for school purposes except as authorized by
the state. They have become reconciled to the interven-
tion of state authority, moreover, as they have seen that
such authority improved the schools.

Of such improvement by such intervention there can be
no doubt. In many cases state school funds have been
created, or large sums are raised by general levy each year,
which are distributed so as to give the most aid to the sec-
tions which are poorest and most need it. In the state of
New York, for example, the cities pay more than half a mil-
lion of dollars every year to the support of the schools in
the country districts. In practically all of the states excel-
lent normal schools are maintained to prepare teachers for
the elementary and secondary schools. In all of the south-
ern and western states great state universities are sustained
as parts of the state school systems. In ten universities of
the North-Central division of states there are twenty thou-
sand students in college and professional courses, and the
work is of as high grade and of as broad range as in the
oldest universities of the country. These things are exert-
ing strong influences upon the sentiment of the people of
the different states and increasing their respect for the
authority of their states over their schools.

And the application of state authority to all of the schools
supported by public moneys of course makes them more

ig] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 19

alike and better. The whims of local settlements disappear.
The schoolhouses are better. More is done for the prepara-
tion of teachers, and more uniform exactions are put upon
candidates for the teaching service. The courses of study
are more quickly and symmetrically improved. There is
criticism and stimulus from a common center for all of the
educational work of the state.

The different states have gone to very different lengths
in exercising their authority. The length to which each has
gone has depended upon the necessity of state intervention
by the exercise of the taxing power, or of delegating that
power to subdivisions of the territory, and upon the senti-
ment of the people. In most cases it has been determined
by the location of the point of equipose between necessity
and free consent. The state government has, of course,
not been disposed to go farther than the people were willing,
for all government is by the people. The thought of the
people in the different states has been somewhat influenced
by considerations which arise out of their early history, but
doubtless in most cases it is predicated upon their later
experiences.

All of the state constitutions now contain provisions
relating to popular education. This was not true of the
original constitutions of all of the older states, for when
they were adopted the maintenance of schools was looked
upon as a personal or local rather than a state concern.
But later amendments have since introduced such provisions
into all of the older state constitutions. And all of the
newer ones have contained strong and elaborate sections,
making it a fundamental duty of the government they estab-
lished to encourage education and provide schools for all.

Of course, all of the states have legislated much in refer-
ence to the schools, and there is scarcely a session of one of
the state legislatures in which they do not receive consider-
able attention. In all of the states there is some sort of a
state school organization established by law. In practically
all there is an officer known as the state superintendent of

2O EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

[2O

public instruction, or the state school commissioner. In
some there is a state board of education. In New York
there is a state board of regents in charge of the private
academies, in some measure of the public secondary schools,
and of all of the higher institutions ; and also a state super-
intendent of public instruction, with very high authority
over the elementary schools and in a large measure over
the public high schools.

The officer last referred to doubtless is vested with larger
authority than any other one educational official in the
country. He apportions the state schools funds ; he deter-
mines the conditions of admission, the courses of work and
the employment of teachers, and audits all the accounts of
the twelve normal schools of the state; he has unlimited
authority over the examination and certification of teachers ;
he regulates the official action of the school commissioners
in all of the assembly districts of the state ; he appoints the
teachers' institutes, arranges the work, names the instructors,
and pays the bills. He determines the boundaries of school
districts. He provides schools for the defective classes and
for the seven Indian reservations yet remaining in the state.
He may condemn schoolhouses and require new ones to be
built. He may direct new furnishings to be provided. He
is a member of the state board of regents and of the board
of trustees of Cornell university. He may entertain appeals
by any person conceiving himself aggrieved from any order
or proceeding of local school officials, determine the practice
therein, and make final disposition of the matter in dispute,
and his decision cannot be " called in question in any court
or in any other place."

All this, with the splendid organization of the state board
of regents, unquestionably provides New York with a more
complete and elaborate educational organization than any
other American state.

There are some who think that it is more elaborate and
authoritative than necessary ; that it unduly overrides local
freedom and discourages individual initiative. One who has

2i] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 21

been a part of that system, and who has also been associated
with educational work where there is but very slight state
supervision, will hardly be disposed to think so. But it is
certainly exceptional among the states. Most of them
undertake to regulate school affairs but very little. In the
larger number of cases the state board of education only
controls the purely state educational institutions, and the
principal functions of the leading educational official of the
state are to inspire action through his addresses and gather
statistics and disseminate information deducible therefrom.

However, there can be no doubt about the general ten-
dency being strongly towards greater centralization. Not
only are its advantages quite apparent, but the overwhelming
current of legislation and of the decisions of the courts is
making it imperative. These are practically in accord, and
are to the effect that in each state the school system is not
local, but general ; not individual schools controlled by sepa-
rate communities, but a closely related system of schools
which has become a state system and is entirely under state
authority. Local school officials are now uniformly held to
be agents of the state for the administration of a state sys-
tem of education.

The granting of aid by the state, the necessity of the
exercise of powers without which the schools cannot live,
and which powers reside exclusively in the state, implies the
right of the state to name the conditions upon which the aid
shall be received, and the duty to see that the exercise of
such powers shall result in equal advantages to all.

Widely dissimilar conditions lead different states to a
greater or lesser appreciation of their educational responsi-
bilities and make them more or less able or disposed to exer-
cise their legal functions to the full measure of their good.
Yet all are appreciating the fact that a constitutional, self-
governing state exists for the moral and intellectual advan-
tage of every citizen and for the common progress of the
whole mass. All are moving as best they are able, and
according to the light they have, in fulfillment of wise public

22 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

[22

policy and constitutional obligation. They have employed
and will continue to employ different methods. Some will
act directly through state officials : some will delegate a
large measure of authority to local boards and officials so
long as it seems well : but all have the highest authority, the
supreme responsibility in the matter, and under the influence
of the later knowledge will undo whatever may be necessary,
and take whatever new steps may be necessary, to carry the
best educational opportunities to every child.

And it is the purpose of the people and the law of most
of the states that such educational opportunities shall not
only be provided for every American child, but that every
one shall be required to take advantage of them. Compul-
sory attendance laws have been enacted in most of the states.
These are not as carefully framed as a good knowledge of
educational administration might very easily lead them to
be, and they are not as completely enforced as the true inter-
ests of many unfortunate children require, yet it may be said
safely that the right and the duty of the state to educate
them is recognized, and that the tendency towards greater
thoroughness in the way of making education universal as a
safeguard to our free citizenship is general.

It was not so in the beginning, but American public
schools are rapidly coming to be related together in a sys-
tem of schools, that system a state system, and at once the
most flexible and adaptable to our manner of living, our
social ideals and our national ambitions.

THE GENERAL GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION

As already pointed out, the authoritative management of
the schools has never been conferred upon the general gov-
ernment, but is reserved to and exercised by the several
states. What might have been done at the time of the
framing of the federal constitution, if it had been supposed
that in a few years the support and management of schools
would develop into a government function, can only be
speculated upon. It is well known that the members of the

23] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 23

first constitutional convention were not indifferent to edu-
cation. But their view of the subject was the view of all
men of their time, i. e., that it was highly desirable that all
social organizations should encourage, perhaps even by that
time that it was proper for government to see that schools
were maintained, but that the real responsibility, and of
course the expense, should fall upon people legally charge-
able with the custody of children. The functions of gov-
ernment touching education were not then under considera-
tion at all, and when they forced themselves upon public
attention the towns, and, when the exercise of the power of
taxation became imperative, the states assumed them as
they were bound to do.

Accordingly, the federal government has never exercised
any control over the public educational work of the country.
But it may be said with emphasis that that government has
never been indifferent thereto. It has shown its interest at
different times by generous gifts to education, and by the
organization of a bureau of education for the purpose of
gathering the fullest information from all of the states, and
from foreign nations as well, and for disseminating the same
to all who would be interested therein.

The gifts of the United States to the several states to
encourage schools have been in the form of land rights from
the public domain. In the sale of public lands the practice
of reserving one lot in every township " for the maintenance
of public schools within the township " has uniformly been
followed. In 1786 officers of the revolutionary army peti-
tioned congress for the right to settle territory north and
west of the Ohio river. A committee reported a bill in
favor of granting the request, which provided that one sec-
tion in each township should be reserved for common schools,
one section for the support of religion, and four townships
for the support of a university. This was modified so as to
give one section for the support of religion, one for common
schools, and two townships for the support of a " literary
institution to be applied to the intended object by the leg-

24 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [24

islature of the state." This provision, coupled with the
splendid declaration that " religion, morality and knowledge
being necessary to good government and the happiness of
mankind, schools and the means of education shall forever
be encouraged," foreshadowed the general disposition and
policy of the central government and made the " Ordi-
nance of 1787 for the government of the Northwest terri-
tory" famous. The precedent here established became
national policy, and after the year 1800 each state admitted
to the Union, with the exception of Maine, Texas and West
Virginia, received two or more townships of land for the
founding of a university. In 1836 congress passed an act
distributing to the several states the surplus funds in the
treasury. In all $28,101,645 was so distributed, and in a
number of the states this was devoted to educational uses.

But the most noble, timely, and carefully guarded gift of
the federal government was embodied in the land grant
act of 1862 for colleges of agriculture and the mechanic
arts. This act gave to each state thirty thousand acres of
land for each senator and representative in congress to
which the state was entitled under the census of 1860, for
the purpose of founding " at least one college where the
leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific
and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach
such branches of learning as are related to agriculture and
the mechanic arts, in such manner as the legislatures of the
states shall respectively prescribe, in order to promote the
liberal education of the industrial classes in the several pur-
suits and professions of life." This act has been added to
by other congressional enactments and the proceeds of the
sales of lands have been generously supplemented by the
state legislatures until great peoples' colleges and universi-
ties have arisen in all of the States.

The work of the United States bureau of education is a
most exact, stimulating and beneficent one. Without exer-
cising any authority, it is untiring and scientific in gathering
data, in the philosophic treatment of educational subjects,

25] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 25

and in furnishing the fullest information upon every con-
ceivable phase of educational activity to whomsoever would
accept it. Its operations have by no means been confined
to the United States. It has become the great educational
clearing house of the world. The commissioners who have
been at the head of this bureau have been eminent men and
great educational leaders. The present commissioner, Dr.
William T. Harris, stands without a peer as the most philo-
sophical thinker and the readiest writer upon educational
subjects in the world. Under such fortunate direction the
bureau of education has collected the facts and made most
painstaking research into every movement in America and
elsewhere which gave promise of advantage to the good cause
of popular education.

So, while the government of the United States is not
chargeable under the constitution with providing or super-
vising schools, and while it does not exercise authority in the
matter, it will be quickly seen that it has been steadily and
intelligently and generously true to the national instinct to
advance morality and promote culture by its influence and
its resources.

PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS

Up to this time we have been treating of the American
public school system, using the term in its strictest sense.
We have been referring to the schools supported by public
moneys and supervised by public officers. Yet there is an
infinite number of other schools which comprise an import-
ant part of the educational system of the country and are
of course subject to its laws. Any statement concerning
American school organization and administration, even of
the most general character, would be incomplete which did
not cover these, but obviously it is not desirable in this con-
nection to do more than touch upon the relation in which
they stand, by common usage and under the laws, to Ameri-
can education.

In the first half of the century just closing many private
" academies" or " seminaries" sprang up in all directions

26 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [26

where the country had become at all settled. This was in
response to a demand from people who began to reach out,
but could not get what they wanted in the common schools.
Any teacher with a little more than ordinary gifts could open
one of these schools upon a little higher plane than usual
and very soon have an abundance of pupils and a profitable
income. Many of these institutions did most excellent work.
Not a few of the leading citizens of the country owe their
first inspiration and much help to them. The larger part of
these schools served their purpose and finally gave way to
new public high schools. Some yet remain and continue to
meet the desires of well-to-do and select families who prefer
their somewhat exclusive ways. A considerable number have
been adopted by their states and developed into state nor-
mal schools, and not a few have by their own natural force
grown into literary colleges.

The earlier American colleges were, in the beginning, in
a large sense the children of the state. Yale, Harvard,
Princeton, Columbia were all chartered by and in some meas-
ure supported by their states at the start, and are yet sub-
ject to the law, though they have become independent of
such support. A vast number of colleges has been estab-
lished by the religious denominations for the training of their
ministry, and, so far as possible, for giving all their youth a
higher education while keeping them under their denomina-
tional influence.

In recent years innumerable schools have arisen out of
private enterprise. Every conceivable interest has produced
a school to promote its own ends and accordingly adjusted
to its own thought. So professional, technical, industrial and
commercial schools of every kind have sprung up on every
hand.

All such schools operate by the tacit leave of the states
in which they exist. The states are not disposed to inter-
fere with them, as they ask no public support. Some of
them hold charters granted by the legislature, and more
secure recognized standing by organizing under general cor-

27] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 27

poration laws enacted to cover all such enterprises. In some
cases the states distribute public moneys to some of these
institutions by way of encouragement, and perhaps impose
certain conditions upon which they shall be eligible to share
in such distributions. But ordinarily a state does no more
than protect its own good name against occasional impostors
who wear the livery of heaven to serve the devil more effectu-
ally, and it is feared that some states have not yet come to
do this as completely as they ought.

The tendency to regulate private schools by legislation, to
the extent at least of seeing that they are not discreditable
to the state, is unmistakable. New York, for example, has
prohibited the use of the name " college " or " university "
except when the requirements of the state board of regents
are met. All of the reputable institutions, — and they con-
stitute nearly the whole number, — desire reasonable super-
vision, for it certifies their respectability and constitutes them
a part of the public educational system of the state.

EXPERT SUPERVISION

It has not been convenient in tracing the preceding pages
to treat of an exceedingly important phase of the American
school system which distinguishes that system from any other
national system of education, and which has come to be well
established in our laws ; that is, supervision by professional
experts, both generally and locally.

From the beginning the laws have provided methods for
certificating persons deemed to be qualified to teach in the
schools. This has ordinarily been among the functions of
state, city, and county superintendents or commissioners.
Sometimes boards of examiners have been created whose
only duty should be to examine and certificate teachers. The
functions of certificating and of employing teachers have,
for obvious reasons, not commonly been lodged in the same
officials. Superintendents began to be provided for by law
in the early part of the century. The first state superin-

28 EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [28

tendency was established by New York in 1812. Other
states took similar action in the next thirty years. Town,
city and county superintendencies came along rapidly, and
by or soon after the middle of the century had been set in
operation in most parts of the then settled country.

The main duty of these officials in the earlier days was to
examine candidates for teaching, report statistics, and make
addresses on educational occasions. In later years, however,
they are held in considerable measure responsible for the
quality of the teaching. In the country districts the super-
intendents hold institutes, visit the schools, commend and
criticise the teaching, and exert every effort to promote the
efficiency of the schools, until a discreet and active county
superintendent comes to exert almost a controlling influence
over the school affairs of his county.

In the cities, and particularly the larger ones, the problem
is much more difficult. The teachers are much greater in
number and the task of securing persons of uniform excel-
lence is much enlarged. The schools are less homogeneous
and instruction less easy. Frequently the superintendent
cannot know the personal qualities of each teacher, or even
visit all of the schools. Yet a system must be organized by
which, through the aid of assistants, the superintendent's
office will be advised fully of the work of every teacher in
the system. And if the system is to have anything like uni-
form excellence, if the rights of children are to be met, and
the instruction is to have life in it, all teachers must be upon
the merit basis, the most deserving must be advanced in rank
and pay as rapidly as practicable, and the weak must be
helped and trained into efficiency or removed from their
positions.

The laws are coming to recognize the responsibilities and
difficulties of the superintendent's position, and are continu-
ally throwing about that officer additional safeguards and
giving him larger powers and greater freedom of action.
The great issue that is now on in American school affairs is

29] EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION 29

between education and politics. The school men are insist-
ing upon absolute immunity from political influence in their
work. It would doubtless seem strange to people of other
nations not familiar with our political conditions, that such
insistence may be necessary. Pure democracy has its
troubles. The machinations of men who are seeking politi-
cal influence constitute the most serious of them. However,
the good cause of education against political manipulation
is making substantial progress. The law books of all of the
states show provisions recognizing the professional school
superintendent : in many of the states they contain provis-
ions directing and protecting his work : and in some of them
they are beginning to confer upon him entire authority over
the appointment, assignment and removal of teachers, while
they impose upon him entire responsibility for the quality of
the teaching.

It is this professional supervision, by states and counties
as well as by towns and cities, taken up almost spontane-
ously at the beginning and early established and compen-
sated by law, which has given the American schools their
peculiar spirit. As intelligence has advanced and the people
have come to know the worth of good teaching and have
been unwilling that their children should be associated with
teachers who have not the kindly spirit of a true teacher, or
be kept marking time by incompetents, they have favored
larger exactions and closer supervision over the teaching, to
the end that it might be in accord with the best educational
opinion. All this is yearly becoming more and more appar-
ent in the laws, and it is advancing the great body of
American teachers along philosophical lines more steadily
and rapidly than any other great body of teachers in the
world is advancing. American teachers have always had
freedom. Now they are learning to exercise it, and they are
being permitted to exercise it, in accord with educational
principles.

3<D EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION [30

CONCLUSION

In conclusion a few facts touching the great school sys-
tem, the legal organization of which we have briefly tried to
sketch, and which has produced that organization and in
turn has in part been produced by it, will be of interest.
The enrollment of pupils in the state common schools alone
was, in 1895-6, 14,379,078. These schools were kept open
an average of 140.5 days in the year. The number of teach-
ers employed was 130,366 males and 269,959 females, a total
of 400,325. The total value of the public school prop-
erty was $455,948,164, and the running expenses for the
year were $184,453,780. There was raised by taxation
$163,023,294. Of institutions above the grade of elemen-
tary schools there were 677 colleges and universities, with
97,134 collegiate students and 69,014 preparatory students.
Some of these are too ambitious in calling themselves
" colleges," it is true, yet all are doing work that counts, and
educational nomenclature is straightening itself out slowly
but steadily. There were 5,108 public high schools with
409,433 secondary pupils, and there were 2,100 private high
schools and academies with 107,633 secondary pupils.
There were 77 law schools with 10,449 students, 148 medi-
cal schools with 24,265 pupils, 157 theological schools with
8,173 students, and 362 normal schools with 67,380 students.
In cities of over 8,000 inhabitants there were 60 1 schools
with 3,590,875 pupils. In the whole country there were
7,184 public libraries with 34,596,258 volumes.

In the year 1896 there was paid for teachers' and superin-
tendents' wages in the common schools $116,377,778, or 63.1
per cent of the total expenditure for school purposes.

Laws making attendance at school compulsory have been
enacted in 32 states and territories.

One of the most gratifying facts in connection with the
educational work of the United States is the large increase
in the number of graduate students in the colleges. The
following table exhibits the number of resident graduate

EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION AND ADMINISTRATION

31

students in universities and colleges of the United States
for 25 years and down to as late a time as the figures are
available :

i88o-'8i 460

i882-'83 522

1883-84 778

1884-^85 869

i885-'86 935

i886-'87 1,237

i887-'88 1,290

1888-89

1,717

1890-^1 2,131

1891-92 2,499

1892-93 2,851

1893-94 3,493

1894-95 3,999

1895-96 4,363

4,919

72 198

1872-73 219

i873-'74 283

1874-75 369

1875-76 399

i876-'77 389

1877-78 414

1878-79 465

1879-^0 411

The United States bureau of education, to which I am
indebted for the foregoing figures and much other informa-
tion, is aided by a corps of 15,000 voluntary correspondents
who furnish printed reports and catalogs and cheerfully
answer the bureau's inquiries upon every phase of educa-
tional work.

It is of course difficult for one not familiar with American
institutions and American ways to understand or appreciate
the American school system. To him it seems anything but
a system. It is a product of conditions in a new land, and
it is adapted to those conditions. It is at once expressive of
the American spirit and it is energizing, culturing and ennob-
ling that spirit. It is settling down to an orderly and sym-
metrical institution, it is becoming scientific, and it is doing
its work efficiently. It exerts a telling influence upon every
person in the land, and is proving that it is supplying an
education broad enough and of a kind to support free
institutions.

LA
201

1904
v.l

Butler, Nicholas Hurra/
Monographs on education

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