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Libraries.-The county treasurer shall withhold from the apportionment received from the interest and income fund or other income for the schools of his county annually an amount equal to 10 cents per capita for each person of school age, which money shall constitute a library fund and shall be used for the purchase of library books. Annually, between the 1st day of July and the 1st day of September, the county library board shall meet at the call of the county superintendent and expend the money thus provided in the purchase of books selected from the list prepared by the State superintendent.

Buildings. The district board shall purchase or lease a site designated by voters, and build, hire, or purchase a schoolhouse, as directed by them.

Every person, pupil or other, who willfully molests or disturbs a public school when in session shall be fined $25 or less, or be imprisoned in the county jail for not more than ten days, or both. Any pupil who cuts, defaces, or otherwise injures any schoolhouse or its appurtenances is liable to suspension or expulsion, and the parents are liable for damages.

4. FINANCES.

Funds (permanent or special)—Taxation.

Funds (permanent or special).--All proceeds of the sale of public lands that have heretofore been or may hereafter be given by the United States for the use of public schools in the State, all such per centum as may be granted by the United States on the sale of public lands, the proceeds of all property that shall fall to the State by escheat, the proceeds of all gifts or donations to the State for public schools or not otherwise appropriated by the terms of the gift, and all property otherwise acquired for public schools shall be and remain a perpetual fund for the maintenance of public schools in the State. It shall be deemed a trust fund held by the State. The principal shall forever remain inviolate, and may be increased, but shall never be diminished, and the State shall make good all losses thereof which may in any manner occur.

The interest and income of this fund, together with the net proceeds of all fines for violation of State laws and all other sums which may be added thereto by law, shall be faithfully used and applied each year for the benefit of the public schools of the State, and shall be for this purpose apportioned among all the public school corporations of the State in proportion to the number of children in each of school age, as may be fixed by law; and no part of the fund, either principal or interest, shall ever be diverted, even temporarily, from this purpose or used for any other purpose whatever than the maintenance of public schools for the equal benefit of all the people of the State.

Taxation. The county commissioners shall, at the time of making the annual assessment and levy of taxes, levy a tax of $1 on each elector in the county for the support of common schools, and may levy a further general tax of 2 mills on the dollar upon all taxable property in the county to be applied to the same purpose, which shall, with the money received from the State, constitute and be known as "the county general school fund;" and they shall levy such further tax upon the taxable property of each school district as the board thereof shall certify is required for the support of the schools, and when collected shall be credited to the district to which it belongs. But the electors in every district shall have authority to levy taxes for the same, the tax not to exceed 2 per cent of the taxable property in the district, and in case of failure of any district to levy a sufficient tax to support school for six months, the board of county commissioners shall levy an amount not to exceed 2 per cent of the taxable property.

TENNESSEE.

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM.

State board of education-State superintendent--County superintendent—District directors-City boards of education.

State board of education.-The governor of the State shall appoint a State board of education, to consist of himself, the State superintendent, and six members. Two of the appointed members shall retire every two years. The board shall locate and make arrangements for opening first-class schools in every

respect for the training of teachers. The board may receive contributions of money from the trustees of the l'eabody Educational Fund or property or funds from any other source for the benefit of the schools it establishes, and the trustees of colleges, universities, or educational institutions shall have power to give the use of their property to the State board for the benefit of such schools. The State superintendent shall be secretary and treasurer of the State board of education.

State superintendent.—The State superintendent shall be a person of literary and scientific attainments and of skill and experience in the art of teaching, and shall be nominated by the governor, and confirmed by the senate for a term of two years, at an annual salary of $2,000, to be paid from the school money in the State treasury. He shall devote his entire time to the duties of his office; shall be a member of the State board of education and of all other State educational bodies and associations; shall have an office in the State capitol, and is liable to removal for misconduct. His duties shall be to collect and disseminate statistical and other information relating to the public schools; to make tours of inspection among the public schools throughout the State; to see that the school laws and regulations are faithfully executed; to prepare and distribute blank forms for all returns to be made by school officers; to have printed and distributed to county superintendents and other school officers as many copies of the school laws as may be necessary, with appropriate forms and instructions for carrying said laws into execution; to appoint, at his discretion, persons in each county to visit, without compensation, and examine all or any of the public schools therein and to report to him touching all such matters as he may indicate respecting their condition, management, and improvement; to appoint a person to make the report required from the county superintendent when that officer neglects his duty; to prescribe the mode of examining and licensing school teachers, and their necessary qualifications; to preserve in his office all documents and matters relative to educational subjects that may come to it; to report to the comptroller the school population of each county; to annually submit to the governor a detailed report of his official proceedings for the year ending June 30 preceding, exhibiting a plain statistical account of receipts and expenditures for public schools and of their condition and progress, showing the number of children, by sex and race, between 6 and 21 years of age; the enrollment, the average number belonging, and the per cent of attendance; the average salary paid to teachers, by sex, the amount of each branch of school expenditures, severally; the cost of education per scholar, and whatever else may tend to show the degree of success and usefulness of the system.

County superintendent.—The county superintendent shall be elected by the county court biennially, but no member of the county court shall be eligible. He shall be a person of literary and scientific attainments, and of skill in the theory and art of teaching, and shall, before each election, file a certificate of qualification, given by the State board of education, in pursuance of the result of a public examination before a commission composed of three residents of the county (appointed by the county court) competent to conduct such an examination. Women of 21 years of age or more are eligible. The county court fixes the salary of the commissioner.

The duties of the county superintendent shall be as follows: To supervise the public schools; to visit the schools of the several districts from time to time; to confer with teachers and officers; to ascertain the merits of text-books, and to suggest changes tending to bring about uniformity in the course of study, when it can be done without increased expense to the parent; to see that the district directors make their reports, or to have them made should the directors fail; to perform such duties in relation to the examination of teachers and issuing to them certificates of qualification as may be required of him by the State superintendent; to report to the county trustees, as soon as ascertained, the scholastic population of each district on the last day of June; to observe such directions and regulations as the State superintendent may prescribe; to make an annual report, and such other special reports as the State superintendent may call for, and to keep a record of his official acts, and of the boundaries of the districts of the county. The county superintendent in counties having a population of 30,000 or more is prohibited from teaching in any public school and from taking any contract for building or repairing school property, and from becoming the owner of a school warrant other than that received for his own services as county commissioner. In addition to the punishment prescribed by statute for misdemeanors in office, a superin

tendent in counties of 30,000 or more who teaches in any public school shall be fined not less than $25 nor more than $50, to go to the benefit of the public school fund.

District school directors.-Three district school directors are elected biennially, and any person shall be eligible to the office of director who can read intelligently and write legibly, perform the duties required, and who resides in the district. If a director moves from the district his office is vacated. If from any cause directors shall not be elected, or when vacancies occur, the county superintendent shall fill such vacancies. No director shall be a teacher in the public schools of his district, nor take any contract for building a schoolhouse, nor any contract which his board is competent to make, nor become the owner of a school warrant.

The duties of school directors shall be as follows: To explain and enforce the school laws and regulations; to visit the public schools within the district from time to time and see that they are legally and efficiently conducted; to subdivide their districts; to employ and pay teachers, and to dismiss them for cause; to suspend or dismiss pupils when the prosperity or efficiency of the school makes it necessary; to use the school fund apportioned to their district, whether derived from donations or other sources, in such manner as will promote the interest of public schools; to see that the school census is taken in the proper manner on the required date; to hold meetings at the times they shall prescribe; to call meetings of the people for consultation in regard to school matters; to care for and control public school property; to report any special matter required by the county superintendent, and to report to him annually on all subjects indicated in the blank forms supplied for the purpose, and until such report shall have been made the member of the board acting as clerk shall not draw his pay. They shall keep separate and apart schools for the white and colored children and employ teachers of like race, respectively, for such schools, under penalty of $50 fine and thirty days' to six months' imprisonment.

City boards of education.-The several incorporated cities and towns within this State may, through their boards of mayor and aldermen, establish and maintain within their respective corporate limits a system of high graded common schools, and have power to appoint a board of education consisting of not exceeding six qualified citizens residing within their corporate limits. The board of education shall have full power as trustees or directors to manage and control such schools, to elect or to employ well-qualified teachers, and to prescribe all needful rules and regulations. Two members of the board shall retire annually.

2. TEACHERS.

Appointment, qualifications, and duties—Preliminary education—Meetings.

Appointment, qualifications, and duties.—No teacher of public schools shall be employed or receive any pay from the public funds unless having a certificate of qualification from the county superintendent, and any officer sanctioning the payment for services rendered by an illegally employed person shall be subject to a penalty of not less than $5 nor more than $50, and for like services women shall be paid the same as men. The county superintendent shall perform such duties in relation to the examination of teachers and issuing to them certificates of qualification as may be required of him by the State superintendent. Written contracts shall be made with all public school teachers, at fixed rates by the month, the contract to be signed in duplicate. Every public school teacher shall keep a daily register of facts pertaining to his or her school in proper form and must deliver it to the clerk of the district hoard before warrant may be issued for the amount of his or her salary. Any teacher may for cause suspend pupils from attendance on the school until the case is decided by the board of school directors, and the teacher has power to punish for offenses committed on the way to and from school.

Preliminary training.-The establishment of a normal school or schools is authorized to be effected by the board of education. The said normal school or schools shall be made in every respect first-class institutions for the professional education of teachers; the most approved methods of instruction shall be adopted, and none but teachers experienced and skilled shall be employed to take charge of them. In the location of such school or schools the State board shall give preference to such locality accessible to all parts of the State as shall offer gratuitously the most suitable grounds and buildings for the establishment of the No pupil shall be admitted into said schools who is under 16 or over 30

same.

years of age, and who shall not have undergone satisfactorily such examination as may be prescribed by the State board of education. Those already engaged in teaching may enter said normal school or schools as pupils upon conditions fixed by the State board. Pupils of the public schools may be recommended for admission into said normal school or schools by the county superintendent on consultation with the directors of the school districts of his county, and in cities by the superintendent of public schools, and such pupils so recommended and who pass a satisfactory examination shall have precedence over all other applicants. Diplomas shall be granted to those honorably completing the course of study exempting the holder from examination as a condition precedent to employment in the public schools of the State. The salaries of principals, teachers, and other officers of said normal schools shall be determined by the State board of education, and the board is authorized to expend annually for the support of the normal college at Nashville, exclusively, $20,000 out of any funds in the State treasury not otherwise appropriated, provided that the Peabody board of trustees shall allow to the State 33 scholarships of $100 each and traveling expenses, one scholarship to be allowed each senatorial district in the State, and to be given after a competitve examination as prescribed by the State board.

Three thousand three hundred dollars, or so much thereof as may be deemed necessary, shall be intrusted to the State board of education for the higher and normal education of the children of Tennessee of African descent, and upon the order of the board the comptroller shall issue his warrant for the same to the president or financial manager of approved institutions of learning for scholarships for the benefit of such of the aforesaid children as may apply therefor, under such regulations as may be prescribed by the board of education. The amount thus appropriated shall be a separate fund, over and above the $20,000 annually granted to the State normal college, and shall be used to defray the expenses of two colored pupils from each senatorial district of the State in approved institutions of learning. The State superintendent, as secretary and treasurer of the State board, shall disburse all moneys appropriated for normal school work, and shall keep a correct record of all official acts performed by him. The State board of education may authorize normal schools to issue diplomas which license the holder to teach in any public school in the State.

3. SCHOOLS.

Attendance-Character of instruction-Text-books-Buildings.

Attendance. The public schools shall be free to all persons between the ages of 6 and 21 years residing in the district, but white persons and colored persons shall not be taught in the same school. The director of each school district shall establish and maintain therein as many primary schools as may be necessary to teach the children of the district, but they shall have due regard to increasing the length of the school term for the benefit of the district by limiting the number of schools. (See also Finances--Taxation.)

Character of instruction.-There shall be two classes of district public schools, designated, respectively, primary and secondary. The directors of each school district shall establish and maintain therein as many primary schools as may be necessary, in which shall be taught orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history of Tennessee and of the United States, the Federal Constitution, physiology and hygiene, with especial reference to the injurious effects of narcotics and alcoholic stimulants; vocal music and elocution or the art of public speaking may be taught, but no other branches shall be introduced. The course of study in the public schools of each county shall be graded and the system of promoting pupils shall be fixed by the county superintendent in accordance with the general regulations of the State superintendent. The course of study in the primary schools shall consist of five grades, and in the secondary schools shall consist of eight grades, the first five grades in each being identical. Pupils completing the first five grades and attaining proficiency therein shall receive a certificate from the State superintendent, certifying that the holder has completed the primary school course, which shall be countersigned by the county superintendent, district directors, and the teacher or teachers of the school, and shall entitle the holder to enter the sixth grade of the secondary school of any school district or of the high school of any high school district in which the holder resides. Pupils completing the eighth grade in the course of the secondary schools and obtaining proficiency therein shall receive a diploma from the State superintendent, which shall be countersigned by the

county superintendent and by the district directors and by the teachers of the school, which shall entitle the holder to enter the ninth grade of the high school of any high school district in which the holder resides.

The directors of each school district, whenever the interests of the district shall require it, may establish and maintain therein one or more secondary schools. Every secondary school shall consist of a principal, and, when necessary, an assistant or assistants may be employed. In every secondary school shall be taught orthography, reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar, geography, history and constitution of Tennessee and of the United States, elementary geology of Tennessee, elementary principles of agriculture, of algebra, of plane geometry, of natural philosophy, bookkeeping, elementary physiology and hygiene (with especial reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, narcotics, and cigarette smoking), elements of civil government, and rhetoric or higher English. Practice shall be given in elocution or in the art of public speaking. Vocal music may be taught, but no other branches shall be introduced.

District directors shall have power to make contracts of consolidation with the trustees or other authorities of academies, seminaries, colleges, or private schools, by which the public schools may be taught in such institutions, provided that the branches of study designated in the preceding paragraphs shall be taught free of any charge in such consolidated schools, and that the authority of the county superintendent, district directors, and other school officers over those studying such branches shall be as full and ample as in the ordinary public schools.

Text-books. The governor and State superintendent, together with three members of the State board of education, to be named by the governor, constitute a text-book commission, whose duty it is to adopt books for use in all the public schools of the State for a period of five years. Such books shall be used to the exclusion of all others, violation of which is punishable by fine of not less than $10 nor more than $50.

Buildings.--The care and management of public school property of the district is in the hands of the directors.

4. FINANCES.

Funds (permanent or special)—Taxation.

Funds (permanent or special).-The permanent school fund of the State shall be the $1,500,000 ascertained and declared by the code and recognized by the State to be the permanent school fund. To this shall be added the interest which has accrued on the same and not been paid by the State, amounting on January 1. 1873, to $1,012,500, making the entire permanent State school fund $2,512,500, for which a certificate of indebtedness shall [1873] be issued, signed by the governor under the great seal of the State, and deposited with the comptroller of the treasury, which shall show on its face the purpose for which it was issued and shall provide for the payment of the interest thereon at the rate of 6 per cent, payable semiannually on the 1st day of July and January in each year, commencing July 1, 1873.

To the permanent State fund may be added from time to time the proceeds of all escheated property, of all property forfeited to the State, of all lands sold and bought in for taxes, of the personal effects of intestates having no kindred entitled thereto by the laws of distribution, and donations made to the State for the support of the public schools, unless otherwise directed by the donors. The principal of said fund shall always remain unimpaired and entire, and the annual income arising therefrom shall be dedicated to the support and maintenance of the public schools of the State. [To this has been added the surplus in the State treasury at the end of each year.]

The State school fund for the annual support of public schools shall be the annual proceeds of the permanent State school fund, any money that may come into the State treasury for the purpose under the present or future laws of the State, and any money that may come into the State treasury for the purpose from any source whatever, and the annual fund shall be apportioned semiannually by the comptroller among the several counties according to their scholastic population as reported to him by the State superintendent, issuing his warrant to the county trustee.

Taration.--Every male inhabitant in the State subject thereto shall pay a poll tax of $1 for the support of the public schools, which shall be collected as other taxes are, and paid over to the county trustee in the county where col

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