DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

The common school system of New York, dates from the year 1812, when the Legislature passed the first act on the subject. This act created the office of trustee, clerk and collector, for school-districts, which were to be formed by the division of towns into convenient districts. Each town was required to elect three Commissioners of Common Schools, whose first business was to form the school-districts. They were the financial officers of the schools, to whom was paid the public money for distribution to the districts, and to whom the trustees were required to report. In every town also there was to be elected from one to six Inspectors of Schools, who, together with the said Commissioners, had the supervision of schools, and the examination of teachers. The law imposed certain duties relating to the distribution of public money, of blanks and documents, and the making and collating of reports, upon Town Clerks, County Clerks, and County Treasurers. The office of State Superintendent of Common Schools was also created, and the Council of Appointment bestowed it upon GIDEON HAWLEY, who served until 1821.

Mr. HAWLEY prepared the forms and instructions, and set the system into practical operation. He found the law defective in some particulars, and especially in its administrative features, and in 1814 he submitted the draft of a law, creating no new officers, but amending the defects which impeded its easy and effective working. Among the amendments was one requiring the Boards of Supervisors to levy upon each of the towns a sum of money equal to the amount distributed to it from the income of the school fund. The law of 1812 had left it discretionary with the inhabitants of the towns to vote such sum, or not, as they pleased. The act of 1805, creating the school fund, had provided that no distribution of income should be made until it amounted to $50,000 annually. The law of 1814 made it compulsory on the Boards of Supervisors to levy on each town a sum equal to its distributive share of the school moneys, and also authorized the levy of a like sum, in addition thereto, if voted by the town. The trustees were required to have a school kept for three months at least, by the original act, and by the amended act, the failure to levy such sum of money worked a forfeiture of the school money for the county.

The original act was framed on the belief that the income of the school fund, and the tax for the same amount would maintain a school in each district for three months, and no provision was made for raising any money by district taxation or rate bill, to make up deficiencies, or

support a school for a longer time. The amended law required the trustees to cause a school to be kept three months, to apply the school moneys to the payment of teachers' wages, and if there should be a deficiency, to collect it from the patrons of the schools, in proportion to the attendance of their children. The school age was between five and fifteen years. The income of the school fund amounted to $50,000 in 1813, but no distribution was made until 1815. The first annual report was made in 1813, but the first report that contained an abstract of the reports of the trustees and commissioners was made in 1816. Mr. HawLEY was superseded in 1821 by the appointment of WELCOME ESLEECK in his place, but the Legislature the same year abolished the office of Superintendent, and made the Secretary of State, ex officio, Superintendent of Common Schools.

The most important amendment to the school law for several subsequent years was in 1822, when the right of appeal to the Superintendent in all questions arising under the school laws was given in terms not since materially changed. This provision was made on the suggestion of JOHN V. N. YATES, and it has prevented litigation, which would probably have overwhelmed the courts, and destroyed the school system. The school laws were revised in 1827, and form a chapter in the Revised Statutes. They remained substantially unaltered until 1841, when an act drawn by JOHN C. SPENCER was passed, creating the office of County Superintendent of Schools, to whom all appeals were to be first made, subject to revision by the State Superintendent. In 1843 the offices of Town Commissioner and Inspector were abolished, and a single officer called a Town Superintendent was substituted. In this year Teachers' Institutes, which have now become a part of the school system, were first held, although their legislative recognition was not made until 1847. The Legislature in 1847 abolished the office of County Superintendent, and required appeals to be brought directly to the State Superintendent, and the returns of the Town Superintendents to be made to County Clerks.

In 1849 the Legislature passed an act establishing Free Schools. The main feature of this act was the abolition of the rate bill, leaving the deficiency, after applying the public money to the payment of teachers' wages, to be made up by district taxation. The act was submitted to the people and approved by a vote of 249,872 in its favor, to 91,951 against it. Its opponents procured, in 1850, the passage of a law to repeal the Free School act, which being submitted to the people was defeated by a vote of 209,616 against repeal, and 184,308 for repeal. In 1851 the controversy was settled by a repeal of the law, and levying a State tax of $800,000, to be distributed with the school moneys in support of schools, instead of the county tax equal to the annual distribution from the school fund.

In 1854 the Legislature created a Department of Public Instruction, and placed at its head a Superintendent, elected by joint ballot of the Senate and Assembly. The school laws remained substantially as they were left by the revision of 1847, until 1856, when the office of School Commissioner was created, the office of Town Superintendent was

abolished, and the Supervisors of the several towns were made the financial agents, to hold and pay out the school moneys apportioned by the School Commissioners, to the towns and districts for the support of schools. The School Commissioner districts were originally, and are now nearly the same as the assembly districts, but since 1856 some counties entitled to one member of Assembly have formed two commissioner districts, and other counties have more School Commissioners than Assemblymen. The number of Commissioners is 112, besides the Superintendents of city schools.

The general revision of the school law, in 1864, was an arrangement of the various existing statutes under proper titles and chapters, with such alterations and amendments as experience and the increased demand for educational privileges seemed imperatively to demand.

In 1866 the Legislature passed an act authorizing the taking of land for school-houses by right of eminent domain. The same thing had been done for many years in Massachusetts and other States.

In 1844 the State Normal School was established at Albany. It was organized during the summer, and opened on the 18th December. In 1863, the Oswego Training School was taken under the patronage of the State, and has been, by the Laws of 1866 and 1867, erected into a Normal School. Under chapter 466 of the Laws of 1866, four Normal Schools have been authorized, one at Fredonia, one at Brockport, one at Cortland, and one at Potsdam. The Legislature has also, by special acts in 1867, authorized the establishment of one at Geneseo and another at Buffalo.

In 1834 an act of the Legislature required the Regents of the University to apply the surplus income of the Literature Fund, beyond the sum of $12,000, to the education of common school teachers, by the distribution of it to such academies as should undertake their instruction. In 1838 the income of the United States Deposit Fund was appropriated as follows, viz.: $110,000 to the payment of teachers' wages; $55,000 to the purchase of books for district libraries; to the Literature Fund, $28,000, to be expended for the education of common school teachers; to colleges, $15,000. It was supposed that the income would amount to $260,000, and that the residue would be $50,000, which was directed to be annually added to the capital of the School Fund. For several years the importunity of local institutions extracted from the Legislature appropriations so large that no surplus was left to be added to the capital of the School Fund. The Constitutional Convention of 1846 ordained that $25,000 annually should be set apart from the income of the United States Deposit Fund, and become a part of the capital of the School Fund. In 1840 Governor SEWARD estimated that the capital would be $3,000,000 by the year 1850. But it had increased from 1840 to 1846 only from $1,932,421.99 to $2,090,632.41, or $58,210.42. From 1846 to 1866, it increased to $2,799,630.04, or $708,997.63 in twenty years, being at the rate of $35,449.88. It will be seen that the $25,000 set apart by this Constitution from the income of the United States Deposit Fund has

been the chief accretion of the Common School Fund, and that without it, the fund in 1866 would have reached only $2,299,630.04.

The Legislature of 1856 also substituted for the $800,000 State tax a levy of three-fourths of a mill upon every dollar of the valuation of real and personal estate. This law graduated the tax so that it would increase yearly with the increased valuation of the State. It made growing wealth contribute to educate the growing population.

By the law of 1812, the public money was paid to those districts only that should maintain a school for three months in the year, kept by a qualified teacher. In 1841 the time was increased to four months, in 1851 to six months, and in 1864 to twenty-eight weeks.

The law of the present year, abolishing rate bills and establishing free schools, has done away with that feature in the system which has been most prolific of dispute and controversy; which has imposed the heaviest and most perplexing duties upon trustees; which has been burdensome and odious to the poor; which has imposed an unequal and unjust tax upon the families more blessed in their children than in their basket and store; and which has been the great cause of irregular attendance and absenteeism. The following table exhibits the sums levied annually by rate bill since the year 1828:

The average sum yearly collected by rate bill for the forty years, included in the table, is $410,685.66.

For the fourteen years prior to 1828, it is probable that the amount collected by rate bill was $250,000 a year; and we may reasonably suppose that the sum for the year ending September 30, 1867, will be $700,000. The aggregate will be, therefore, increased to $20,627,426.66 for fifty-four years, and the yearly average will be $381,989.38.

It will be observed that the sum raised by rate bill has uniformly exceeded, and generally quadrupled the amount distributed from the income of the Common School Fund. It has as regularly exceeded the whole public money apportioned from the School Fund, and the United States Deposit Fund, added to the county and town taxes, until the imposition of the State tax in 1851. The years to be excepted from these statements are 1850–1-2, the years of the free school controversy. The rate bill has been the special tax upon the patrons of the commou

schools. It may justly be styled a tax upon knowledge. The present law has merely transferred this burden from the fathers of families to the taxable property of the whole State.

The rate bill having been abolished, the common schools will hereafter be supported from the following sources:

1. The income of the Common School Fund.

2. The amount that the Legislature may annually set apart from the income of the United States Deposit Fund.

3. The General State Tax.

4. District, Village and City Taxation.

5. The income of Local Funds.

(1.) The revenue of the Common School Fund is about $170,000 a year. The distribution from it is at present $155,000 yearly.

(2.) The appropriation from the income of the United States Deposit Fund, is $165,000 annually; but it depends upon the Legislature, which may, at any time, divert the income to some other object.

(3.) The main dependence of the schools, so far as relates to the payment of teachers' wages, must be upon the State tax, which being now fixed at one and a quarter mills upon each dollar of valuation, will probably yield about two millions of dollars a year. The income of the two funds is about one-eighth of the sum annually needed to pay teachers.

(4.) District, village and city taxation is voluntary, and the amount raised annually varies with the exigencies of the year. The purchase of sites, the building of school-houses, and the furnishing of them with seats, desks, chairs, stoves, fuel and apparatus are all done by local taxation. No money has ever been appropriated for these objects from the income of the State funds, or the avails of the State tax.

(5.) The income of local funds, chiefly gospel and school lands, was last year $19,182.60. It does not vary much from year to year.

Apportionment.

The public moneys apportioned annually, are the income of the School Fund, and the United States Deposit Fund, and the proceeds of the State tax.

The Superintendent of Public Instruction, after ascertaining the amount to be apportioned

(1.) Sets apart from the income of the United States Deposit Fund the amount necessary to pay the salaries of the School Commissioners.

(2.) To each city having a Superintendent of Common Schools, or clerk doing the duty of supervision, the sum of five hundred dollars for each member of Assembly to which the city is entitled.

(3.) The library money appropriated by the Legislature.

(4.) He then sets apart from the Free School Fund two thousand dollars for a contingent fund.

(5.) He then sets apart for the support of Indian schools an equitable sum, the same in proportion to their numbers that is apportioned to schools for white children.