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$36,980 69

$ 4,785 08 112,088 45

Paid to visiting inspectors,

boards of inspectors,.

Paid for all other purposes, or not specified,.
Amount on hand at close of year,....

Total for the year,..

Excess of expenditures as reported in 1862,.....

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receipts as reported in 1863,..

Beported indebtedness of districts at close of school year,.

These statistics, on the whole, exhibit a gratifying progress in our school affairs. The variations from the statistics of the preceding year are due in part to greater or less accuracy in the reports; but in the leading items, as the number of children, the length of school terms, the attendance of pupils, and the numbers and wages of teachers, the reports are presumed to be nearly correct. Some remarks on the several departments of the school interests will be offered under their appropriate heads.

The following table exhibits the progress of the School interests for several years past in the leading items of the statistics.

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DIRECTORS' REPORTS.

The importance of the subject demands that some suggestions be offered in regard to the annual report of the school directors, since these reports are the primary source through which all knowledge of the general condition and working of the School system is derived.

By law, the director of each district is required to report annually, at the close of the school year, to the clerk of the township in which the school house is situated, the number, with a certified list of the names, of all children between the ages of five and twenty years residing in the district, the number of pupils attending school, the length of the school terms for the year, the text books used, the number of qualified teachers employed, the wages paid, and an accurate statement of all receipts and expenditures of school moneys, embracing all collections and taxes, and such other items as the Superintendent of Public Instruction may require. The substance of these reports is copied into the annual reports of the school inspectors, copies of which are sent to the Superintendent's office at Lansing. Here the report for each district is carefully examined to ascertain whether, from the sufficiency of the report and from its compliance with the law, the district is entitled to share in the next apportionment of primary school moneys.

To aid the directors in making their reports, blanks are annually prepared by the Superintendent, and furnished to each district. These blanks are carefully revised each year, and such changes made as the errors discovered in previous reports indicate as needful to enable the directors to make their next reports more full and correct. Thus assisted, no very great skill is required on the part of district officers to fill up these blanks; but although great improvements have been made, and especially the past year, yet many obvious errors still remain which slight precautions would remedy.

COMMON ERRORS IN REPORTS.

The following will afford a view of the character of the errors more commonly committed:

Some omit the two mill tax-some the primary school moneys, and many are known to give the latter incorrectly. Some omit library moneys known to have been received, or give a wrong amount. These errors, known to the department, lead to the presumption that other financial items are omitted, or incorrect.

Some reports acknowledge library funds received, but none paid out, and no moneys on hand; showing either an omission, or an illegal use of the funds. Others report library funds expended, but no books purchased; or books added to the library, and no library funds expended. Many neglect to report any library.

In many instances the report of one year contradicts that of the preceding. In some entire counties, where comparison has been made, it is found that in not over half of the districts is the same amount reported "on hand" at the commencement of 1863, that was reported on hand at the close of 1862.

Some reports show considerable more money expended than received an impossibility; while others exhibit more received than expended, but nothing remaining on hand. Sometimes taxes voted to be raised the coming year, are reported as received. Some report receipts and no expenditures, and others expenditures and no receipts; some-not a large numbermake no report whatever of the finances; some evidently report liabilities that are part paid, as wholly paid, particularly in teachers' wages; some place the "amount on hand" under the head of "indebtedness of the district;" and others report the indebtedness, both as indebtedness and as expended; and some place the receipts for the year under the head of "on hand at the commencement of the year." Some reports, returned to directors for correction, have come back in a more confused state, if possible, than at first. There are some reports where the prima facie evidence is strong that the accounts are forced

to a balance. At any rate, there is often positive evidence that accounts that balance are not correct.

Some directors report many more children attending school than there are in the district-counting twice all those who attended both the summer and winter schools. The excess thus reported, however, will probably not more than equal the number which others neglect to report at all. Some report all attending school as being under five or over twenty years of age; some report the average time of attendance more than the entire time of school; and not a few report it the same-the former being absolutely impossible, and the latter utterly improbable, since it would imply the regular attendance of every pupil for every day the school was taught.

SOURCES OF ERRORS IN REPORTS.

It would be absurd to suppose that all these errors occur through the incompetency of the officers making the reports. Some of them are evidently chargeable to gross negligence of their duties on the part of those who have accepted district offices, but are indifferent to the trusts reposed in them. But by far the larger part of these errors are the result of a too general failure to keep the proper records and accounts during the year.

The teacher's register of daily attendance, often imperfectly kept, is not properly preserved by the directors after the ratebill is made out, and in some cases no such register is kept, because the school is to be free. The law positively requires a full record of the names, ages and daily attendance of the pupils to be kept, whether there is to be a rate-bill or not, and such record is indispensable in filling out the annual report.

Even a greater laxity of usage prevails in keeping the proper money accounts of the districts. In not a few districts no accounts at all seem to be kept. The moneys belonging to the district are left in the hands of the township treasurer till they are wanted for the payment of the teacher, or for other uses, and then orders are given directly on the treasurer in favor of the party to be paid. Thus the township treasurer is made to

act as treasurer of the district, and no account of the school moneys being kept in the district, no correct report of its finances can be made by its officers. The several funds belonging to the district-such as the fund for payment of teachers, the library fund, and the fund for incidental expenses, and building-are illegally paid out for other purposes than those to which they belong, and opportunity is afforded for frauds and serious losses.

THE REMEDY.

The following suggestions ought to be urged upon all those who are intrusted with the care of the schools. In the first place let the district board see to it that the teacher is provided with a properly prepared register, and that full and accurate record is made of the age and daily attendance of each pupil. Such a record promotes regularity in attendance, and is essential for the safety and prosperity of the school. It is the only means of supplying to the State and to the tax payers, the evidence they have the right to demand of the successful working of the school.

Secondly, all the school funds of the district should pass through the hands of the district assessor. He is the legal treasurer of the district, and should receive and pay out all its school moneys. His books, if properly kept, would be a complete record of the annual resources and expenditures for the school and library, and would enable the school board and citizens to gain at any time a clear understanding of the financial condition of the district. It is true a considerable part of the funds come through the hands of the township treasurer, but he was never designed to be the treasurer of the district, and the irregular and too common practice of making him serve as such leads to great confusion in the district accounts, as well as in the annual reports.

The moderator and director, having taken the assessor's bond, as required by law, should, at the proper season, give him warrants upon the township treasurer for all school and

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