Part II XXIII REORGANIZATION OF THE PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM 1. REORGANIZATION OF STATE CONTROL THE STATE A UNIT IN EDUCATION At the time the constitutional convention was held in 18471848 there was in Wisconsin virtually no territorial or state control of education. The constitution as formulated by that convention and adopted by the voters of the state recognized the state as the unit in education and vested in the legislature the power to formulate constructive legislation to carry the constitutional provisions into effect. Wide Latitude Granted the Legislature. The constitutional convention, in providing for a complete state system of education, including elementary and high schools, normal schools and a state university, with a state superintendent as the chief educational officer of the state, considered the educational needs of the state as a whole for the reason that primarily the education of the children and youth of the state is a state power and function. However, in the interpretation of the constitution the legislature was naturally given wide latitude. It can determine what the local communities shall be required to do and what assistance the state is to render in carrying out the general plan of popular education. It can delegate to such local communities large powers in the administration of public education and it can withdraw such powers as the occasion seems to demand. Constitutional Powers of the State Superintendent. The section of the constitution relating to the state superintendent, among other things, declared, "the supervision of public instruction shall be vested in a state superintendent and such other officers as the legislature shall direct." This section can be interpreted in but one way, namely: that the state superintendent as the constitutional officer of supervision of public education was to have supervisory control over the entire system of public schools from the one-room country school to the state university and including normal schools and other teachertraining institutions. No Real Power of Control Conferred Upon the Superintendent. In defining the powers and duties of the state superintendent the legislature of 1848 declared, "He shall have general supervision over the common schools of the state, and it shall be his duty to visit as far as practicable every county in the state, etc." This statute did not confer any real powers of control on the superintendent. While it assigned many duties to this official, they were largely, if not wholly, advisory, clerical, inspectional, judicial and exhortatory in character. The reason for vesting so little power of control in the constitutional officer of supervision of public education may be ascribed in part to the fact that the financial support of the public elementary and high schools was almost wholly local, and in part to the fact that the state superintendency was a political office subject to partisan politics. GENERAL AND SPECIAL STATE AID No State Aid Provided in 1848. The legislature which met in special session in the summer of 1848, soon after the state constitution was adopted, as well as the legislature of 1849, under whose direction the school laws were codified, made no provision for direct state aid of any kind to the common schools. Provision was made for the apportionment of the income of the common school fund, the national endowment for education provided by congress, and for the county supervisors to levy annually a tax in each town and ward for the support of the common schools, which tax, according to the constitution, was not to be less than one-half the amount of school moneys appor tioned to such town and ward from the income of the school fund. However, due to the spoliation of the school lands during the early years of statehood, the amount of the school fund income distributed to each district was so small as to be almost negligible. Thus it was that nearly every dollar for the support of the common schools was raised by means of district, i. e., local taxes. If under these conditions the state had, through the state superintendent, assumed large powers of educational control the action would undoubtedly have resulted in opposition and resentment on the part of the tax payers. General and Special State Aid Introduced. However, when gradually the idea was evolved that every child in the state should be given an opportunity to secure a good education and that this was impossible in a decentralized system in which the support of public schools in many districts, for various reasons, was such that it fell far below the necessary cost of instruction to secure good schools, the state, appreciating its responsibility gradually introduced a system of general and special state aid, the first special state aid being offered to free high schools in 1875. It was not until ten years later, however, that the legislature passed a law providing for general state aid in the form of the first mill tax. Then there followed in rapid succession acts which provided special state aid to state graded schools; to oneroom rural schools; to consolidated schools; to county schools of agriculture and domestic economy; to county training schools; to high schools that introduced courses in manual training, agriculture, domestic science, or for the training of teachers; to day schools for the deaf and blind and to vocational schools. State aid was also provided for supervising teachers, for transportation of children to and from school, for the teachers' insurance and retirement fund and other purposes. State Control Increased. With the granting of general and special state aid, there followed increased state regulation and control introduced primarily to determine whether the conditions imposed by the state to secure the state aid were met by the local communities. The state superintendent was accordingly directed to appoint other officers of supervision as provided by the constitution, such as high school inspectors, state graded and rural school inspectors, elementary school inspec |