Capitol, Columbus. — Area, 39,964 square miles. — Population, 1850, 1,980,329. THE New England character of the founders of this State displays itself in the immediate or very early attention to the interests of public education. Ohio has never been without a school system; and school legislation constitutes no inconsiderable portion of the acts of the General Assembly. Not always perhaps wisely, but always with good intent, nearly every session shows some new scheme devised, or some old plan modified or matured, with the prospective purpose of increasing the efficiency and utility of the public schools. The Constitution provides that "there shall be a thorough and efficient system of common schools established throughout the State"; and "that the principal of all funds granted or intrusted to the State for educational purposes shall be for ever preserved inviolate and undiminished, and the income therefrom shall be faithfully applied to the specific objects of the original grants or appropriations."

In 1838, greater permanence was given to public appropriations for schools by an act for their incorporation as a School Fund. In this way, the United States Deposit Fund was specifically set apart, and its annual income, or five per cent on the capital which was borrowed by the State, appropriated to common schools. By the same act, the interest on the lands, the revenue from banking, insurance, and bridge companies, and other funds to be provided by the State, to the amount in all of $ 200,000 per annum, were appropriated in the same way. This sum, $ 200,000, was to be annually distributed among the several counties, according to the number of white youth (unmarried), between the ages of four and twenty years, resident in each county.

The New School Law, so called, was adopted in 1853. The following synopsis will indicate its character. 1. A State Commissioner of Common Schools, with an office at Columbus, elected once in three years by the people, and holding office until a successor is elected and qualified. He is not qualified until he has given bonds for $10,000, and taken an oath of office. (The books and correspondence of his department are in the charge of the State Librarian, who is his clerk.) He is required to "spend, annually, on an average, at least ten days in each judicial district of the State, superintending and encouraging Teachers' Institutes, conferring with township Boards of Education, or other school officers, counselling teachers, visiting schools, and delivering lectures on topics calculated to subserve the interests of popular education." He is also required to make to the Governor an annual report, embodying "a statement of the condition and amount of all funds and property appropriated to purposes of education; a statement of the number of common schools in the State, the number of scholars attend

ing such schools, their sex, and the branches taught; a statement of the number of private and select schools in the State, so far as the same can be ascertained, and the number of scholars attending such schools, their sex, and the branches taught; a statement of the number of Teachers' Institutes, and the number of teachers attending them; a statement of the estimates and accounts of the expenditures of the Public School Funds of every description; a statement of the plans for the management and improvement of common schools, and such other information relative to the educational interests of the State as he may think of importance." 2. County Boards of (three) Examiners, appointed by the Judges of Probate, and holding office for two years. It is "their duty to fix upon a convenient time and place, and hold an examination" of all candidates for the office of teachers, and to give to such as they, or two of them, shall deem qualified, suitable certificates, which are only valid in the county where given, and for two years. This Board of Examiners has also power to annul, or revoke, any certificate, and to require thereupon the dismissal of any incompetent or negligent teacher. No person can be employed as a teacher without such a certificate; and no fee can be charged for it. The Examiners are paid for their services by the State. 3. Township Boards of Education, composed of the clerk of the local directors of the sub-districts, and the clerk of the township. It is their duty to divide the township, or district, into suitable sub-districts, and these sub-districts they may alter or change at discretion, subject to the general proviso, that every sub-district shall contain at least sixty resident pupils, except in peculiar cases requiring a smaller subdivision. They have general power in determining upon the admission of pupils to the schools, and their dismission, or suspension for cause, from the schools. And in the event of establishing high or central schools, combined from two or more sub-districts, they have the entire supervision and management of such schools. 4. Local School Directors (three) for each sub-district, one being elected in each year by the legal voters of the sub-district, and each one serving three years. To them is intrusted the care of the prudential concerns of the sub-district, including the supply of fuel, the needful repairs of the buildings, and the making all necessary provision "for the convenience and prosperity of the school." They must cause a careful enumeration, or census, of all the white unmarried youth, between five and twenty-one years of age, to be annually taken, and see that it is duly transmitted to the township clerk. They are authorized to contract with and employ teachers, and are also expected to visit the school or schools in their several precincts, twice in each term.

The support of the common schools is dependent upon, -1. The Trust Funds, the proceeds of lands originally given to certain districts of territory in the State (including the Virginia Military Fund, United States Military Fund, Connecticut Western Reserve School Fund, proceeds of sixteenthsection lands, and the avails of the funded Salt Lands, in all about $2,000,000); 2. The State Common School Fund, consisting of the undis

tributed portion of the Surplus Revenue Fund, the interest of the Surplus Revenue Fund lodged with the counties, receipts from pedlers' licenses, from auction duties, from taxes upon lawyers and physicians, and upon banking, insurance, and bridge companies; with the tax received from an "annual levy and assessment of two mills upon the dollar valuation on the grand list of the taxable property of the State." This last provision is nearly equivalent to a tax of three tenths of a mill on each dollar of the full valuation.

There is no provision, by general law, for an assessment of taxes for current expenses of instruction upon the property of the township, by its own local act; authority to raise money being restricted to the amount needful to provide school-houses, &c. But in the cities and towns, in which the schools are organized by special legislation, the power is less restricted. And the admirable system of schools in Cincinnati, for instance, was supported, in 1854, by $ 56,994.32 raised to meet the requirement of the State law, with $ 90,760.95 raised by taxation, in compliance with an ordinance of the City Council, which is authorized to raise any amount not exceeding two mills on each dollar of the full valuation.

The proceeds of the State tax, and the interest of the Public Funds, are distributed by the State Auditor to the several counties, according to the enumeration, or census, of the persons of the school age; and no township failing to make this, and the other required returns, is entitled to receive any money from the State Auditor. But any township, or district, thus failing to receive its proportionate share of the school moneys, may maintain an action in law against the official, or officials, through whose neglect to comply with the legal conditions the failure shall have happened, to the full amount of its share, with the interest and costs accruing.

The system of reporting thus alluded to, which culminates in the Commissioner's Report to the Governor, commences with the teacher, who is not entitled to receive his or her wages for services rendered, until a report, very minute in its details, has been “certified and filed” with the Township Clerk ; and it is unlawful for any township or sub-district officer to draw any warrant for such payment, until this condition has been fully complied with. The Township Clerk must report, in like manner, to the County Auditor, who in turn must report to the State Commissioner. And the law imperatively demands fidelity in each department.

"For the purpose of furnishing school libraries* and apparatus to all common schools in the State, and for the purpose of sustaining and increasing such libraries, and keeping up a supply of school apparatus in the schools, as aforesaid, from time to time, as may be considered necessary, in order to afford equal facilities to the said schools in this respect, as nearly as practicable, there shall hereafter be assessed, collected, and paid annually, in the

* The levy of one tenth of a mill on a dollar, for libraries, &c., was repealed, 1856. Also, the levy for schools was reduced from two mills to one and a half.

same manner as the State and county revenues are assessed, collected, and paid, on the grand list of property taxable for State purposes, a State tax of one tenth of a mill on the dollar valuation, to be applied exclusively for the purposes aforesaid, and the attendant expenses, under the direction of the Commissioner of Common Schools. In purchasing the libraries of common schools, no books of a sectarian or denominational character shall be purchased for said libraries." "As soon as the revenues, to be raised as thus provided, for the purpose of furnishing the common schools with libraries and apparatus, will admit, it shall be the duty of said Commissioner to purchase the same, and the books and apparatus so purchased shall be distributed, through the Auditor's office of each county, to the Board of Educa tion in each township, city, or incorporated village, according to the enumeration of scholars."

Free schools, equal in character, and of equal length with other schools in the township, are required to be opened for colored children, whenever the enumeration of resident pupils exceeds thirty; in case the average number in attendance shall be less than fifteen in any one month, it is the duty of the Board of Education to discontinue the school for a period not exceeding six months at any one time; and the Directors must, in such case, reserve the money raised on the number of the colored children, and, at some other time, appropriate it for their education. "In any district or sub-district, composed in whole or in part of any city or incorporated village, the Board of Education may, at their discretion, provide a suitable number of evening schools, for the instruction of such persons, over twelve years of age, as are prevented by their daily avocations from attending day schools."— Am. Ed. Year-Book, 1857.

SUMMARY OF STATISTICS FOR THE YEAR ENDING AUGUST 31, 1857. Total number of townships in

Number of female teachers in

826,455

11,582

6

one, Of these, the number of colored children was, Amount of money raised for each pupil, Whole number actually attending school,-white males, 318,013, females, 280,649, -colored males, 2,373, females, 2,312. Total, 603,347 Average daily attendance, 350,867 Number of male teachers in

during the year 1857,

the State,.

10,189

for the year,

$2,299,917.06