APPENDIX.

SCHOOL LEGISLATION OF 1903.

Delay in the publication of this volume makes it possible to add a summary of the school legislation of 1903.

The most important act relates to the establishment of Normal Training Classes.

The enactment of this law marks a "new departure” in the matter of preparing teachers for the rural schools. Probably experience will suggest some modifications in its provisions, which are in substance as follows:

1. The Superintendent of public instruction is authorized to grant permission for the establishment of a normal training class in any county of the State in which no normal school is located. Only one such class can be established in any county and only ten classes in any one year. The Superintendent prescribes the conditions under which permission will be granted.

2. The classes are to be under the control of a County Normal Board composed of the State Superintendent, the County Commissioner of Schools, and the Superintendent of the schools with which the class is connected. In case the Superintendent should be county commissioner, the board of education of the district in which the class is organized, elects the third member of the county board.

3. In order that a class may be established the people of the district must, by a majority vote, favor the proposition, and the school board of the district must furnish con

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venient rooms and satisfactory teachers. The Supervisors of the county must also favor the establishment of the class. The class must have at least ten members, and must be maintained at least thirty-two weeks in the year.

4. Applicants for admission to the class must be not less than seventeen years of age, of good moral character, and must pledge themselves to remain in the class for a year, and to engage in teaching upon graduation, either in the rural schools or in the lower grades of graded schools.

5. Two courses of study are prescribed, one for one year, and one for two years, and the scholastic conditions of admission are prescribed.

The courses are similar to those in the elementary normal schools, with the addition of elementary agriculture and domestic science.

6. Certificates.

Graduates from the one year course receive a certificate valid for three years, entitling the holder to teach, for three years, in any school in the county in which not more than two teachers are employed.

Graduates from the two years' course receive a certificate valid for five years, entitling the holder to teach in any school in the county in grades below the tenth.

Both grades of certificates are valid in any county or city in the State when endorsed by the authority which grants certificates in such county or city.

The certificates may be renewed by the County Board. 7. Support.

Funds for the support of these normal classes are derived (1) from the State, (2) the County, and (3) the district in which the school is located. The State pays an

ADDITIONAL NORMAL SCHOOL

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nually $250 for each teacher employed in the school, provided that the total appropriation to any one county for one school year, shall not exceed $1,000. Of the balance needed, the County pays one-half, provided that the amount paid by the County shall not exceed one-half of the amount paid by the State. The remainder is paid by the locality.

AN ADDITIONAL NORMAL SCHOOL.

An act was passed authorizing the State Board of Education to locate and organize a school to be known as the "Western State Normal School." The school is to be of the same general character as the other Normal Schools, and is subject to the control and management of the Board of Education. The Board has located the school at Kalamazoo, and the buildings will be erected and the school organized as early as the extent of the work will permit.

POWERS OF THE STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION EN

LARGED.

Hitherto the diplomas and certificates to be bestowed upon graduates of the Normal Schools have been prescribed by statute. At the session of 1903 an act was passed authorizing the Board of Education to grant such diplomas and degrees, and to issue such licenses and certificates to graduates as the Board may, from time to time, determine.

This will probably result in some changes in the certificates granted to the graduates from the different courses of study in the normal schools.

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INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND

EMPLOYMENT INSTITUTION FOR THE BLIND.

A law, partially educational in its character and purpose, was enacted establishing the “Michigan Employment Institution for the Blind." The purpose of the institution is to provide "for the training, care and employment of adult blind persons of good moral character." The institution is located at Saginaw, and its control and management are vested in a board of three trustees, one of whom must be a blind person. The institution is to be "an industrial or polytechnic school and factory, a working home, and an employment and information bureau" with a circulating library and such other departments as may seem "wise and judicious."

PAYING FOR THE TUITION AND TRANSPORTATION OF PUPILS.

The following important act was passed, which has vital connection with the matter of consolidating rural schools and transporting children of all grades.

"Any school district which maintains a school during five months of the year, having children residents therein who have completed the studies of the eighth grade in said school, may at any annual meeting vote a tax sufficient to pay the tuition and daily transportation, during school days, of said children to any high school which the school board of said district may select and designate.”

CHANGE IN TIME. OF EXAMINATIONS.

Regular examinations by the county examiners, for certificates of all grades, are to be held at the county seat, on the

TIME OF EXAMINATIONS

second Thursdays of March and August.

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Two other regular examinations may be held, at such places as the examiners select, on the third Thursdays of June and October. Only certificates of the second and third grades can be granted at these examinations.

LIBRARIES.

Some important improvements were made in the statutes relating to libraries, the details of which can be best learned by referring to the statutes themselves.