THE COUNTY SYSTEM.

The figures in the preceding tables, especially those relating to "Examinations," "Visits," and "Institutes," are worthy of study, as they partially indicate the extent, character, and value of the work done under the County Superintendency. This system of school supervision has met with more or less opposition in the State during the eight years of its existence. The feeling seems to be growing that it is too ineffective and too expensive; that the benefits realized are not at all commensurate with the cost. The most common objections urged against the system, including its expensiveness, are: that it increases materially the wages of teachers; that it places too much power in the hands of one man, and that the territory within the jurisdiction of the superintendent is so extended that the official work required, especially in the older and more populous counties, is much more than can be satisfactorily performed. There are fifty-six counties having superintendents (counties with less than ten organized school districts not being entitled to such an officer). The whole number of townships under county supervision is 874, embracing 5,388 school districts. The whole number of townships not under county supervision is 81, having 103 school districts. The total expense of the county superintendency for the year (less Keweenaw and Oceana counties not reported) is $44,001 63, and the average expense for child of school age (deducting 50,000 for districts not under county supervision) is eleven and four-tenths cents, while the average expense per child of school supervision in twenty of the interior cities of the State is seventy-eight cents. The expense of the county superintendency is 2 3-10 per cent of the total expense for teachers in the State, while the expense of supervision in the twenty cities referred to is 13 per cent of the total expense for teachers there employed.

The average wages of teachers per month for the school year just previous to the county system coming into operation was: 1867....

1874....

Increase

.males, $44.03; females, $19.48

By the Legislature of 1871, the schools were made entirely free, and the rate-bill system was abolished. Previously the greater portion of the teachers employed in the rural districts "boarded around," and the expense of their board no where appeared in figures; while now the cost of board is generally included in the wages as reported. But if it be conceded that the change will apply to not more than three-fourths of the teachers in the State, this will be amply sufficient to account for the increase.

It will be conceded by all that the more important and extended the work to be done the greater the need of supervision. The unity of our school system, its continual necessities and the magnitude and extent of the work it demands, make it indispensable that men of special training, school men, and such as would show devotion to the work, should be employed in the superintendence of all our schools, the ungraded as well as graded; the schools in the country as well as those in the city and village. The superintendent should be competent, experienced, earnest, and faithful,-and the counties in the State are few which could not furnish scope for the time and powers of such a man,-a ready and constant adviser of teachers and school officers, counseling them in their duties, relieving them in their troubles, and assisting them in the details of the school business to which they may be partially or wholly unac

customed, a conscientious worker, discharging every official duty and doing it intelligently, impartially, and fearlessly. Such a supervision as here indicated. is worth something, and it should cost something. It would result in great gain to the schools, and ultimately would prove in every respect the cheapest. It has been wisely said "that honest and vigilant supervision is the life and strength of every enterprise requiring numerous and diversified agencies."

It is said that this county system is faulty in that it increases the wages of teachers. This increase of wages would be a natural result of the system ably, efficiently, and honestly administered. Even if it did not raise the standard of teachers' attainments above what the people actually demand, it would very likely lessen the supply by refusing license to the incompetent and unworthy. If the qualification of teachers is of so much importance as to demand an examiner who shall license, and this licensing is a condition precedent to entering a school to teach, then that should be considered the best system of supervision which proves to be the most careful and critical in the granting of licenses. If certificates can be easily obtained by those who are unworthy of them, perhaps there might as well be no condition whatever.

In respect to the objection raised that the work required of the superintendents in the older and more populous counties is more than can well be performed, it may be said, that this difficulty (and no one can be more conscious of the fact that such a difficulty exists than myself) can easily be remedied, if such be the disposition of those who have the power to remedy it, by granting to the superintendents of these counties a deputy or assistant.

The last report issued from this department recited briefly some of the benefits which have resulted from the workings of the system in our State.

In view of the present diversity of sentiment among our own people as to the propriety of continuing the system, it may not be out of place to quote here the opinions entertained by the Superintendents in some of the States having a system similar to our own. This county system of school supervision now exists in twenty-seven States of the Union and in eight of the territories, and the Superintendents in all, so far as known, bear high testimony to its worth.

The State Superintendent in Illinois says:

"The question whether or not a competent county superintendent of schools can be procured for a salary of $400 per annum need not be asked. The average wages of teachers in common ungraded district schools are more than that, and the average salary of principals of graded schools throughout the State is three times that amount. Hence the statement at the outset, that if this provision of the new law* goes into effect, unchanged, county school supervision will cease, and the office itself will be merely a name,-a misnomer, and might as well be abolished altogether. Every capable and accomplished superintendent will be compelled to abandon the work and to engage in other pursuits, as several have already done in anticipation of the probable future, and none can or will be found to supply their places. The office, in nearly every county, will fall into the hands of persons who will seek it as a mere temporary means of subsistence till other employment offers, or into the hands of those who will use it as a secondary adjunct to their regular pursuits. I consider this a matter of grave concern to the people of the State. Were it otherwise I should have adhered to the purpose long since formed, not to say anything about the county superintendency in this report, having had so much to say on that subject heretofore. But a strong personal disinclination must yield to a still stronger conviction of official duty, and I again appeal, most earnestly, to the Legislature to so revise the law as to save this necessary and valuable feature of our common school system from virtual destruction,-to so amend that able and experienced teachers and educators may be still drawn to

"By the new law the compensation will be substantially as follows: four dollars a day for fifty days, $200; commissions, about $200,-total $400 per annum. The former law allowed the sum of five dollars a day for services actually rendered, leaving each officer to exercise his own judgment and discretion as to the amount of service required."