city. If such town neglects or refuses to pay for such tuition, it shall be liable therefor to the parent or guardian of a child who has been furnished with such tuition if the parent or guardian has paid for the same, and otherwise to the city or town furnishing the same, in an action of contract. If the school committee of a town in which a public high school or public school of corresponding grade is not maintained refuses, upon the completion by a pupil resident therein of the course of study provided by it, to approve his attendance in the high school of some other city or town which he, in the opinion of the superintendent of schools of the town in which he is resident is qualified to enter, the town shall be liable in an action of contract for his tuition. A town whose valuation does not exceed $500,000 shall be entitled to receive from the treasury of the Commonwealth all necessary amounts which have been actually expended for high school tuition under the provisions of this section, if such expenditure shall be certified under oath to the board of education by its school committee within thirty days after the date of such expenditure, and such high school shall have been approved by the board of education.

Two adjacent towns, each having less than 500 families or householders, may vote to form one high school district for establishing a high school.

The school committees of such towns shall elect one person from each of their respective boards, and the persons so elected shall form the committee for the management and control of such school, with all the powers of school committees.

Such committee shall determine the location of the schoolhouse, if one is authorized, to be built by the towns of such high school district; otherwise it shall authorize the location of such school alternately in the two towns.

The proportion to be paid by each town for the erection of a permanent schoolhouse for such school, for its support and maintenance, and for all incidental expenses attending the same, unless otherwise agreed, shall be according to its proportion of the county tax.

Two or more towns may severally vote to establish union schools for the accommodation of such contiguous portions of each as shall be mutually agreed upon. The management and control of such schools, the location of the same or of the schoolhouses therefor, and the apportionment of the expenses of erecting such schoolhouses, and of the support and maintenance of said schools, with all expenditures incident to the same, shall be governed by the provisions of the three preceding sections.

Every city and town containing 20,000 inhabitants or more shall maintain the teaching of manual training as part of both its elementary and its high school system.

A town may establish and maintain one or more industrial schools, and the school committee shall employ the teachers, prescribe the arts, trades, and occupations to be taught therein, and have the general control and management thereof; but it shall not expend for any such school an amount exceeding the appropriation specifically made therefor, nor compel a pupil to study any trade, art, or occupation without the consent of his parent or guardian. Attendance upon such school shall not take the place of the attendance upon public schools required by law.

Any town may, and every city or town of 10,000 or more inhabitants shall, maintain annually evening schools for the instruction of persons over 14 years of age in orthography, reading, writing, the English language and grammar, geography, arithmetic, industrial drawing, both free-hand and mechanical, the history of the United States, physiology and hygiene, and good behavior. Such other subjects may be taught in such schools as the school committee consider expedient.

Every city of 50,000 or more inhabitants shall maintain annually an evening high school, in which shall be taught such subjects as the school committee thereof consider expedient, if 50 or more residents, 14 years of age or over, who are competent, in the opinion of the school committee, to pursue high school studies shall petition in writing for an evening high school and certify that they desire to attend such school.

The school committee shall, two weeks next before the opening of each term of the evening schools, post in three or more public places of their city or town notice of the location of said schools, the date of the beginning of the term, the evenings of the week on which they shall be kept, such regulations as to attendance as they deem proper, and the provisions of the law relating to the attendance upon evening schools of illiterate minors over 14 years of age.

The school committee may employ competent persons to deliver lectures on the

natural sciences, history, and kindred subjects, and may provide cards or pamphlets giving the titles and authors of books of reference on the subjectmatter of said lectures which are contained in the local public libraries.

The school committee of a city or town may establish and maintain schools to be kept open during the whole or any part of the summer vacation; but attendance thereon shall not be compulsory or be considered as a part of the school attendance required by law.

A town may establish and maintain, upon shore or upon vessels at the election of the school committee, one or more schools for training young men or boys in nautical duties; such schools shall be subject to the direction of the school committee under the law, except that the school committee may excuse boys attending such nautical schools from attendance on other schools.

In every public school having an average of 50 pupils one or more female assistants shall be employed unless the town votes otherwise.

The president, professors, and tutors of the university at Cambridge and of the several colleges, all preceptors and teachers of academies, and all other instructors of youth shall exert their best endeavors to impress on the minds of children and youth committed to their care and instruction the principles of piety and justice and a sacred regard for truth, love of their country, humanity and universal benevolence, sobriety, industry and frugality, chastity, moderation and temperance, and those other virtues which are the ornament of human society and the basis upon which a republican constitution is founded; and they shall endeavor to lead their pupils, as their ages and capacities will admit, into a clear understanding of the tendency of the above-mentioned virtues to preserve and perfect a republican constitution and secure the blessings of liberty as well as to promote their future happiness, and also to point out to them the evil tendency of the opposite vices.

A portion of the Bible shall be read daily in the public schools, without written note or oral comment; but a pupil whose parent or guardian informs the teacher in writing that he has conscientious scruples against it shall not be required to read from any particular version or to take any personal part in the reading. The school committee shall not purchase or use schoolbooks in the public schools calculated to favor the tenets of any particular religious sect. In all the public schools the last regular session, or a portion thereof, prior to the 30th day of May, known as Memorial Day, shall be devoted to patriotic exercises.

No person shall, in the presence of a pupil in any public school or of a minor there present, practice vivisection or exhibit an animal which has been vivisected. Dissection of dead animals or of any portions thereof in the public schools shall be confined to the class room and to the presence of pupils engaged in the study to be illustrated thereby and shall in no case be for the purpose of exhibition. Whoever violates the provisions of this section shall be punished by a fine of not less than $10 nor more than $50.

Text-books.-The school committee shall direct what books shall be used in the public schools, and shall prescribe, as far as is practicable, a course of studies and exercises to be pursued therein. Such exercises may, at the discretion of the committee, include calisthenics, gymnastics, and military drill; but no special instructors shall be employed therefor except by a two-thirds vote of the committee. No pupil shall be required to take part in any military exercise if he, his parent or guardian, notifies the committee that he or his parent or guardian has conscientious scruples against such exercise or believes that It would be injurious to his health. The school committee shall, at the expense of the town, purchase text-books and other school supplies used in the public schools, and, subject to such regulations as to their care and custody as it may prescribe, loan them to the pupils of such schools free of charge, and, if instruction is given therein in the use of tools and in cooking, may so purchase and loan the tools, implements, and materials necessary therefor.

In a city which, by vote of the board of aldermen, and in a town which, by vote of the inhabitants at an annual town meeting, accepts the provisions of this section or has accepted the corresponding provisions of earlier laws, the school committee shall make regulations with reference to the care, custody, and distribution of books and supplies so loaned, and may provide for the continued use of any text-books by such pupils throughout any grades. Such pupils may, if the school committee so votes, purchase from such city or town, at such time and place as the school committee designates, at not more than the cost price to such city or town, any text-books which are or are to be used by them in the public schools, and, if the committee so votes, pupils who complete two years

in any public school in grades more advanced than the fourth grade may, upon graduating from the grammar school and upon application to the school committee, be permitted to acquire the permanent ownership of such free textbooks used during the last year of their attendance in the school as they may select.

The school committee shall, at the expense of the town and in accordance with appropriations therefor previously made, procure apparatus, reference books, and other means of illustration.

A change may be made in the schoolbooks used in the public schools by a vote of two-thirds of the whole school committee at a meeting thereof, notice of such intended change having been given at a previous meeting.

Building. Every town shall provide and maintain a sufficient number of schoolhouses properly furnished and conveniently located for the accommodation of all children therein who are entitled to attend the public schools. A town which for one year refuses or neglects to comply with the requirements of this section shall forfeit not less than $500 nor more than $1,000, to be paid and applied as provided in sections 23 and 24. The school committee, unless the town otherwise directs, shall have general charge and superintendence of the schoolhouses therein, shall keep them in good order, and shall procure a suitable place for the schools, if there is no schoolhouse, and provide fuel and all other things necessary for the comfort of the pupils therein at the expense of the town.

The school committee of every city and town shall provide for each schoolhouse in which public schools are maintained and which is not otherwise supplied, a United States flag of silk or bunting not less than 4 feet in length, and suitable apparatus whereby such flag may be displayed on the schoolhouse building or grounds every school day when the weather permits and on the inside of the schoolhouse on other school days.

A town may, at a meeting called for the purpose, determine the location of its schoolhouses, and adopt all necessary measures to purchase and procure land therefor. Whoever willfully and maliciously or wantonly and without cause destroys, defaces, mars, or injures a schoolhouse or any of its appurtenances shall be fined $500 or imprisonment in the jail not exceeding one year. Every public building and every schoolhouse shall be kept clean and free from effluvia arising from any drain, privy, or nuisance; shall be provided with a sufficient number of proper water-closets, earth closets, or privies, and shall be ventilated in such a manner that the air shall not become so impure as to be injurious to health. The provisions of this section shall be enforced by the inspection department of the district police. If it appears to an inspector of factories and public buildings that further or different sanitary or ventilating provisions, which can be provided without unreasonable expense, are required in any public building or schoolhouse, he may issue a written order to the proper person or authority, directing such sanitary or ventilating provisions to be provided. A school committee, public officer, or person who has charge of, owns, or leases any such public building or schoolhouse who neglects for four weeks to comply with the order of such inspector shall be punished by a fine of not more than $100. Whoever is aggrieved by the order of an inspector, issued as above provided and relating to a public building or a schoolhouse, may, within thirty days after the date of the service thereof, apply in writing to the board of health of the city or town to set aside or amend the order, and thereupon the board, after notice to all parties interested, shall give a hearing upon such order and may alter, annul, or affirm it.

The nautical training school.-There shall be a board of commissioners of the Massachusetts Nautical Training School consisting of three citizens of the Commonwealth, one of whom shall annually, before the 1st day of July, be appointed by the governor, with the advice and consent of the council, for a term of three years from said 1st day of July. Said commissioners shall serve without compensation, but they shall be reimbursed by the Commonwealth for all expenses actually incurred by them in the performance of their official duties. They shall provide and maintain a nautical training school for the instruction and training of pupils in the science and practice of navigation, shall provide accommodations for the school on board a proper vessel, purchase and provide books, stationery, apparatus, and supplies needed in the work of the school, appoint and remove instructors and other necessary employees, determine their number and compensation, fix the terms and conditions upon which pupils shall be received and instructed in the school and be discharged or dismissed therefrom, establish all regulations necessary for its proper management, and shall from

time to time provide for cruises in or from the harbor of Boston. They may receive from the United States Government, and use for the accommodation of the school, such vessels as the Secretary of the Navy may detail. They may annually expend not more than $50,000 which shall be paid by the Commonwealth; and they shall annually submit an estimate of the expense required in making cruises in or from the harbor of Boston, and the amount of said estimate, after approval by the governor and council and subject to the provisions of chapter 6, shall be advanced to the commanding officer of the vessel detailed therefor, who shall give a bond in the sum of $10,000, with sureties approved by the governor and council, for its proper disbursement. Said advance shall not exceed $10,000 for six months, and shall be accounted for by properly approved vouchers within thirty days after the termination of said cruises. They shall annually, in January, report to the general court a detailed statement of all moneys appropriated and expended during the preceding year for the nautical training school, stating the results of the work during such year and making any necessary recommendations.

4. FINANCES.

Funds (permanent or special)—Taxation.

The Massachusetts school fund.-The present school fund of the Commonwealth, such additions as may be made thereto, and any money received by the Commonwealth from the Government of the United States, the disposition of which is not otherwise provided for, shall constitute a permanent fund, to be called the "Massachusetts school fund." The principal thereof shall not be diminished, and the income shall be appropriated as hereinafter provided. The fund is now $4,670,548.14, and $100,000 shall annually be paid from the treasury of the Commonwealth into said fund, until the principal thereof amounts to $5,000,000.

The secretary of the board of education and the treasurer and receivergeneral shall be commissioners who shall invest and manage the fund, and report annually to the general court the condition and income thereof. The premiums on any securities purchased for said fund, to an amount not exceeding in any one year $50,000, may be paid from any money in the treasury of the Commonwealth not otherwise appropriated. All investments shall be made with the approval of the governor and council. The annual income of the Massachusetts school fund shall, without specific appropriation, be apportioned and distributed for the support of the public schools in the following manner: Every town which complies with all laws relative to the distribution of said income and whose valuation of real and personal property, as shown by the last preceding assessors' valuation thereof, does not exceed $500,000, shall annually receive $500; but if its rate of taxation for any year shall be $18 or more on $1,000, it shall receive $75 additional; every such town whose valuation is more than $500,000 and does not exceed $1,000,000 shall receive $300; and every such town whose valuation is more than $1,000,000 and does not exceed $2,000,000 shall receive $150; and every town whose valuation is more than $2,000,000 and does not exceed $2,500,000 shall receive $75. The remainder of said income shall be distributed to towns whose valuation does not exceed $2,500,000, and whose annual tax for the support of public schools is not less than one-sixth of their whole tax for the year, as follows: Every town whose school tax is not less than one-third of its whole tax shall receive a proportion of said remainder expressed by one-third; every town whose school tax is not less than one-fourth of its whole tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one-fourth; every town whose school tax is not less than one-fifth of its whole tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one-fifth; and every town whose school tax is not less than one-sixth of its whole tax shall receive a proportion expressed by one-sixth. All money appropriated for other educational purposes, unless otherwise provided for, shall be paid from the treasury of the Commonwealth.

The income of said fund which has accrued on the 31st day of December in each year shall be apportioned by the commissioners of the Massachusetts school fund in the manner provided for by section 1 of this act, and shall be paid to the several towns on the 25th day of January thereafter.

The sums received by any town under the provisions of this act shall be held by the town treasurer, and shall be expended only for expenses in maintenance of the public schools authorized by the school committee, in accordance with

existing laws; and it shall be the duty of the treasurer to keep a separate account of all sums so received and expended, and the school committee shall make an annual report to the State board of education, in such form as may be prescribed by said board, of the amount received during each year, the amount expended from such receipts, the purpose for which such expenditures have been made, in detail, and the balance, if any, remaining unexpended. And whenever it appears that, in the opinion of the State board of education, the sums paid to any town have not been used in whole or in part in accordance with the provisions of this section, or that they have not been held and accounted for separately, or that the report thereof herein required has not been made, the commissioners of the school fund are hereby authorized to withhold, as they may deem advisable, the whole or any part of the future allowances otherwise falling to such town under the provisions of this act.

No such apportionment and distribution shall be made to a town which has not maintained a school as required by law; or which, if containing 500 families or householders, has not maintained, for at least thirty-six weeks during the year, exclusive of vacations, a high school such as is mentioned therein; or which has not made the school returns, and complied with the laws relative to truancy; or which has not raised by taxation for the support of public schools which are authorized or required by law, including the wages of teachers, the transportation of school children, fuel, the care of fires, schoolrooms, and school premises, supervision, text-books, and supplies, and school sundries or incidentals during the school year embraced in the last annual returns, an amount not less than $3 for each person between the ages of 5 and 15 years resident in such town on the 1st day of September of said school year. The income of said fund shall be applied by the school committees of the towns receiving it to the support of the public schools therein; but said committees may apply not more than 25 per cent thereof to the purchase of books of reference, maps, and apparatus for the use of said schools. The income of the Todd fund shall be paid to the board of education, to be applied by said board to specific objects, in connection with the normal schools, not provided for by legislative appropriation.

Moneys received by a county treasurer under the provisions relating to dogs and not paid out for damages, shall in the month of January be paid back to the treasurers of the cities and towns in proportion to the amounts received from such cities and towns; and the moneys so refunded shall be expended for the support of public libraries or schools. In Suffolk County moneys so received by the treasurer of a city or town, and not so paid out, shall be expended by the school committee for the support of public schools.

Taxation.-Towns shall raise by taxation money necessary for the support of public schools. A town which refuses or neglects to raise money for the support of schools as required by law shall forfeit an amount equal to twice the highest sum ever before voted for the support of schools therein. A town which refuses or neglects to choose a school committee shall forfeit not less than $500 nor more than $1,000 to the use of the county. Three-fourths of such forfeiture so paid shall be paid by the county treasurer to the school committee, if any; otherwise, to the selectmen of the town from which it has been recovered, who shall appropriate it to the support of the schools of such town as if it had been regularly raised by the town for that purpose.

A town may appropriate money for conveying pupils to and from the public schools, or, if it maintains no high school or public school of corresponding grade but affords high school instruction by sending pupils to other towns, for the necessary transportation expenses of such pupils, the same to be expended by the school committee in its discretion.

MICHIGAN.

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM.

State board-State superintendent-County board of examiners-County commissioner of schools-Township school inspectors-District board of directors-Board of trustees.

State board.-There shall be elected every two years a member of the State board of education, who shall serve for six years. The State superintendent shall be ex officio a member as well as secretary of the board. The board shall