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(2) To vote a tax on the taxable property of the district for the purpose of building a school house, furnishing the same and providing it with the necessary "appendages" and fuel, but no tax exceeding the sum of three hundred dollars was to be voted for a building unless the town superintendent, in writing, declared a larger sum was needed, specifying the sum.

(3) To vote a tax for the payment of teachers' wages. (4) To vote a tax not exceeding twenty dollars in any one year, for the purchase of globes, blackboards, outline maps or any apparatus for illustrating the principles of agriculture, chemistry, or the mechanical arts.

(5) To determine the length of time school was to be taught the ensuing year, which time was not to be less than three months.

(6) To determine whether the school shall be taught by a male or female teacher during the summer or winter term.

District Officers and Their Duties. The members of the district board were elected for only one year. The director and clerk signed all orders drawn upon the treasurer by the clerk. The treasurer collected the taxes voted by the district meeting and received from the town superintendent all school moneys apportioned to the district. He made a report each year to the district of all moneys received and all the disbursements made by him. He was required to give a bond, so that if by his neglect a part of the district taxes were not collected, he was compelled to make good the full amount of the moneys so lost.

The clerk recorded the proceedings and kept all records, books and papers belonging to his office. He contracted with and hired the teacher for the district. He gave notices of meetings and transmitted each year to the town superintendent a report on the number of children of school age in the district, the number attending school, the length of time school was taught, the average daily attendance, the kinds of textbooks used, and such other statistics as the state superintendent might require. He also made out tax lists of all taxes legally authorized by the district.

The district board had the care and keeping of the school house and other district property, and they had power to purchase books for children of indigent parents. Orthography,

reading, writing, English grammar, geography and arithmetic were required to be taught in every public school, and such other branches of education as might be determined upon by the district board. With the advice of the state superintendent of public instruction they decided what school books were to be used in the district. The board was also required to visit the district school and make suggestions to the teachers in regard to the course of study.

The Town Superintendent. The powers and duties of the town superintendent, who was elected for one year and received a salary of one dollar per day for every day actually and necessarily devoted by him to the service for which he was elected, were as follows:

(1) To divide the town into school districts and regulate and alter their boundaries. An appeal could be made to the state superintendent from the decision of the town superintendent.

(2) To apportion the school moneys received from the county and town treasurers to the several districts in proportion to the number of children residing in each over the age of four and under the age of twenty years.

(3) To transmit to the county clerk a detailed annual summary of the reports of the district clerks. The county clerk made an annual report to the state superintendent of schools.

(4) To examine teachers and to issue certificates authorizing

the holders to teach for a period of one year, and to annul such certificates when he thought it proper.

(5) To visit the schools in his town, examine into the state and condition of such schools, and, in his discretion, to give advice to the teachers and district boards in regard to the studies to be pursued and the government of the schools. Libraries. It was also made the duty of the town superintendent to appropriate annually ten per cent of all moneys received by the several districts of the town to be applied by them to the purchase of school libraries. The district clerk was made the librarian of the district.

THE DISTRIBUTION OF THE SCHOOL FUNDS

The school fund income was to be distributed annually on the tenth day of February by the state treasurer to the county treasurers. The county treasurer in turn was to hold the moneys subject to the order of the city treasurer or town superintendent of schools. In case the county board of supervisors in any county failed to levy the amount required by law to be raised for school purposes the state superintendent was directed not to apportion any of the school funds to such county but add such moneys so withheld to the principal of the common school fund.

THE CROWNING ACHIEVEMENT OF MICHAEL FRANK'S LIFE

Michael Frank Handicapped by Restrictions. In the work of codifying the school laws, Michael Frank was handicapped by the restrictions imposed upon him. He was directed by the resolution creating the commission to codify the existing laws on education. He was thereby prevented from writing into the new code the results of the valuable experiences of other states and his own advanced ideas on education. However, due to the fact that there were so many conflicting school laws in force and that he was required to comply with section 3, Article X, of the constitution, he was compelled to make many minor changes and to introduce practically new provisions. In several instances he made separate recommendations by means of new bills some of which were acted upon favorably by the legislature. But the fact that he had made some changes in the old laws provoked considerable opposition in the legislature.

Report of Commissioners Adopted. When the report on the school code was submitted to the legislature, it was admitted that Michael Frank had done his work in a careful and scholarly manner, but Marshal M. Strong, of Racine, who had been a member of the committee that revised the laws of the territory in 1839, attacked the report of the commissioners, declaring that they had transcended the instructions of the legislature which had directed them to codify and revise existing laws and not to formulate and recommend the passage of new laws. This objection, however, was answered by another mem

ber who naively declared that the adoption of the state constitution had rendered the school laws then on the statute books null and void, and hence there was nothing to revise. Whether this was good law or not it had the desired effect, for the legislature, after making a few unimportant changes in the new code, adopted it substantially as it came from the hands of the revisers.

The codification of the school laws was the crowning achievement in the life of Michael Frank. He had given Wisconsin its first free public school. He had for years advocated the establishment of a state system of free public schools supported entirely by public taxation. He had been superintendent of the Kenosha schools and now had the satisfaction of having his codification of the school laws accepted by the legislature practically without debate. History concedes to him the high honor of being the father of the present free public school system of the state.

VI

SIGNIFICANCE OF THE FREE PUBLIC SCHOOL
SYSTEM AS PROVIDED BY THE CON-
STITUTION AND THE SCHOOL
LAWS OF 1849

PUBLIC EDUCATION A STATE POWER AND FUNCTION

The Constitution and Education. The state constitution provides for a complete system of free popular education from the kindergarten to the university, and recognizes the fundamental idea that public education supported by public taxation is essential to the well-being, progress, and perpetuity of the state. It virtually declares that public education is a state power and function, based upon the well established principle that the whole state is interested in the education of the children of the state and that this function must be exercised by the people as a whole and cannot be left to the whims or caprices or selfish interests of local communities.

The Legislature and Education. Acting in accordance with the constitution whose provisions are fortunately of a general character, the legislature in working out the details of the school system, naturally considers the growth in population, and the development and ever-changing conditions and needs of the people of the state. It may try experiments in the hope of improving the system of public education. If it makes mistakes, as it undoubtedly will, it can change its plans and try others. It is answerable for its mistakes only to the people.

The Principle of State Control Recognized. The creation of the office of state superintendent was a distinct recognition of the principle of state control in public education. The decentralizing influences in the legislatures of 1848 and 1849, however, resulted in giving the state superintendent no controlling or discretionary power. While he was given general supervision over the common schools of the state and was required

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