country districts are left without skilled inspection or instruction, and without that experienced supervision that would systematize and unify their work and make it of practical worth. All the school interests of the five hundred city and village districts are promoted by intelligent supervision; the interests, ALL, of the 11,000 country districts are left without this intelligent supervision, and this, too, when the city and village districts are controlled by boards of education, elected by the people, having in view, as a primary consideration, the peculiar fitness of those elected to provide for the school wants of the district; and the township districts are controlled by a board not elected directly by the people, and not chosen because of capability to make intelligent school provision. Worse than this, the schools of township districts are under the control of two sets of officers-the local directors and the township board-almost constantly at variance; never quite agreeing as to the employment of teachers; the salaries paid them; the distribution of school fund; the erection and location of school-houses, or the character of these houses. Thirty-two thousand local directors, clashing, striving, wrangling with 11,000 members of township boards of education about the provision for 11,000 schools.

Is there any remedy? Certainly, a very simple, economical, and rational remedy. Give to the township schools the same administration of the school system that has been given to the city and village districts, and the schools of the township districts will be as efficient, as wisely and as economically managed, as prolific of good results as are those of the city and village districts. Make the township district all the territory within the limits of the township, exclusive of incorporations; let the electors of the township districts elect, directly, a school board, say of six members, two for one year, two for two years, and two for three years, and each succeeding year elect two members who shall serve three years, etc. This will secure a board of education to each township district, elected directly by the people, each member of which has been chosen because of his peculiar qualification to perform well the duties of so important an office. By such a board of education the school affairs of the township district will be economically and wisely administered. The township board, as now selected, is composed of a number of men, each of whom holds his place solely because of his ability to perform the clerical duties of the local board. His fitness to assist in providing intelligently for the school wants of the township district is a secondary consideration, if it is a consideration at all. The plan proposed of recognizing the right of the electors of each township district to elect, directly, say six persons to represent them in providing for their school

wants, simply does for the township districts what has been done for the city and village districts, simplifies the present cumbrous and entangling, clashing machinery of country school management, by abolishing the pernicious and obsolete sub-district system and the necessity for a vast army of local officers whose efforts are cramped and hindred by the conflicting efforts of another army of local officers, and substituting a board of education composed of persons enough to represent the township district fairly, and representing directly the interests of the people of the district.

The State would then be divided for school purposes into city districts, village districts, and township districts. All sub-districts and special districts and joint sub-districts should be abolished; the latter is a monstrosity. The special district is an infraction upon the spirit of republicanism or democracy. It is almost universally a special privilege granted to a wealthy or an aristocratic corner of a township to the injury of all the rest of the township. Such special privileges should not be granted. They are a discordant and disorganizing element thrust into the common school system. Abandon all these sub and special districts; give to the people of the township district what has already been given to those of the city and village districts. This is rational. This recognizes the fact that the citizen of the country district is quite as competent to lock after his school interest as is he who chances to live in the city or village.

Now there will be but one other feature needed to secure to the country school that efficiency and economy and excellence of management and provision that is known as the result of city and village school management, that is, intelligent, experienced, skilled supervision. How can this be secured without creating eighty-eight more county officers, and without adding to the burdens of taxation? The latter question has been answered. It needs in this age of shrewd business management no arguments to show that skilled supervision of any extensive business is economy, whatever the supervision may cost. It has been demonstrated that by careless, incompetent, unsystematic, unintelligent, inexperienced · provision for schools in the country districts, in the items of school buildings, sites, and employment of unnecessary teachers, more than double the amount of money to pay well for county supervision is wasted. With a school board elected in each township district, as has been suggested, and with such supervision over the country schools as has been given to city and village schools, the school funds would be properly and economically expended, county supervision could be paid for, and the State saved $100,000 to $300,000.

How shall a superintendent be secured to each county? Just as in the

city and village districts. In order that the entire county, exclusive of incorporated villages or cities, shall be represented, each township board of education must select one of its members as a committeeman, to represent its interests in the county committee or board of education, composed of one member from each township board of education. This county committee or board shall employ a superintendent, whose duties with respect to the township districts shall be the same as the duties of the city superintendent with respect to the wards and grades of the city schools. This county committee shall fix the salary of the county superintendent, and the rate of levy necessary to pay him, which levy shall be paid by the several township districts in proportion to the amount of taxable property in each. This makes county supervision a matter of employment as in city districts, and not of election, and avoids the very objectionable feature of creating a county officer. This plan also recognizes the right of the people of the country districts-as of the city-to find beyond the limits of the county, any where he may be found, the person qualified to manage the schools of the country districts, and to be the adviser of the township board of education. This plan leaves as closely as possible with the people of the county the right to select the person who shall superintend their schools, and is further removed from partisan influence or any corrupt or extraneous influences than often bear upon the employment of superintendents of city schools.. Briefly stated, this plan will abolish all districts and sub-districts except city, village, and township districts. The State will then be organized for school purposes into city, village, and township districts. The city and village districts will be as now. The township district will be all the territory within the limits of each township, exclusive of city and village districts. The qualified electors of each township district, as the qualified electors of the city and village districts now do, will elect, directly, competent and judicious persons to serve as members of the board of education, two for one year, two for two years, and two for three years, and each succeeding year elect two, etc. Then each township board of education shall select one of their number as a committeeman, who shall represent the township district in the county committee or board, composed of one from each township board of education in the county. This county committee or board shall employ a superintendent to supervise the township districts within the county; shall fix his salary and the levy to pay him; and the superintendent so employed shall be to the county committee as any other employe to his employer. The county superintendent shall hold a certificate of extraordinary qualification, indicating scholastic attainments and successful experience, from

the State board of examiners, which certificate will be valid only when countersigned by the State Commissioner of Schools.

The duties of the county superintendent shall be similar to those of the superintendent of a city district-that is, he shall visit and examine each and all the schools in the several township districts of his county, personally, as often as practicable, inspecting the work done by teacher and pupils, advising, directing, instructing teachers, inspecting grounds and buildings, ascertaining from time to time whether each township district be so divided as to afford equal and uniform advantages to all parts of the district; reporting to the board such changes in the boundaries as may seem likely in any way to promote convenience and lessen expense of school, without prejudice to their objects; look after the construction of buildings; devise forms for reports to boards and for registers, etc.; make himself thoroughly acquainted with the school wants of each township district in grounds, buildings, and teachers, and with the qualifications of the teachers and their ability to teach; shall be their instructor and guide; shall organize in each township and take charge of a township teachers' association; shall preside over the county teachers' association; shall keep the township boards of education constantly advised of the condition and wants of the several districts; shall report to each board once a year enrollment, attendance, etc., of the district, and shall report to the State School Commissioner all the statistical information of the township schools of the county required by that officer.

Under this rearrangement of the school system as applied to the country districts, a uniformity of text-books may be easily secured for the several districts within each county, by making the presidents of each of the several districts a committee that, with the advice of the superintendents of the several districts, shall determine the text-books which shall be used in all the schools of the county. Under the present system there is no uniformity in the use of text-books in the several schools of the township districts, nor in any one school. In many of the country schools to-day pupils come to school bringing the text-books they can buy at such country stores as may keep books, and teachers are compelled to make classes to accommodate a variety of text-books, to the manifest detriment of the school. True, the present law requires township boards of education to determine the text-books to be used in the township districts, but they have only in a few instances done this, and if each board of education within the county should comply with the requirements of the law a uniformity of text-books would be insured only in school districts, and not in the county.

The advantages to the country schools of the adoption of this plan are

incalculable; these advantages are seen in the good results coming from the management of city schools-it will be unnecessary to enumerate them. For years the only bars that have shut out the State from the economy and wisdom-the many blessings of county supervision-have been the aversion to the creation of another county office in each county, and the fear that the burdens of taxation would be increased. The Com missioner of Schools would not recommend county supervision if either of these objectionable features had to be embodied in any plan to secure it. In every State where the county superintendent is a county officer, the supervision is not that aid to the wisdom and economy of a school provision it should be, although it is generally regarded in such States as a valuable auxiliary.

The plan suggested avoids these objections, and instead of adding to the burdens of taxation, it can be demonstrated that an adoption of the plan will lessen the burdens of taxation by saving the useless and unnecessary and unwise expenditure of thousands of dollars now spent for grounds and buildings and teachers where these are not needed. The welfare, the usefulness, the efficiency, the very life of our country schools, demands a provision for intelligent supervision. The greater portion of the public school funds are expended in the country districts. Eighteen thousand of the twenty-two thousand teachers of Ohio teach in these districts. How unreasonable and improvident to give supervision to the city and village districts, with the comparatively small expenditure of school funds, and with their four thousand teachers, and refuse it to the township districts now needing the greater expenditure of school funds, and having eighteen thousand teachers.

To remedy the evils connected with the present system of county examination, it is suggested that after provision has been made for county supervision, any three adjoining counties be made a district for examining purposes, and the three county superintendents of these counties. shall constitute the examining board or committee. This will insure uniformity of examining and of results all over the State, and it will insure the granting of certificates only to competent teachers.

It is to be hoped that the present Legislature may win for itself the gratitude of the country by doing this simple act of justice to the country schools, and by providing a measure wise in economy and wise in the fruitfulness of its good results. It will be proper to add that the $60,000 now paid by the State to officers for conducting examinations and making statistical reports in a necessarily incomplete manner, and to lecture before county associations, will be diverted from them to the payment of the county superintendent, a part of whose duties it will be to do this work more accurately and better.