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jury, and place his books before them for examination, and the jury shall take proper notice of the matters thus brought to their attention.

Subdistrict school trustees.-The county board shall establish in each subdistrict one or more schools for white and one or more for colored children, as near the center as may be in case of one school. If the county board deem it necessary they may appoint three intelligent, upright citizens of each subdistrict as school trustees, to serve three years, one retiring annually. The trustees shall supervise the school operations of their subdistricts, visit the schools, make such recommendations to the county boards as may appear best; and recommend persons for teachers' places, which it shall be the duty of the county boards to choose. The trustees shall report annually to the county board, or oftener if required.

City board of education.-City and county boards shall have enumerated the children of 6 to 18 years of age through one or more competent and reliable persons, who shall go from house to house making a thorough canvass by sex and race. The persons so employed shall be known as enumerators of the school census, and shall take and report any additional statistics required by the State school commissioner. They shall receive $2 per diem or less. (Local systems are created by special laws, in some cases ratified by the vote of the people.)

2. TEACHERS.

Appointment, qualifications, and duties.-Preliminary training.-Meetings. Appointment, qualifications, and duties.-The county board of education is empowered to employ teachers, and the contracts shall be in writing and signed in duplicate by the teacher and by the county school commissioners; but it shall be the right of subdistrict school trustees to recommend the persons to be appointed, provided they be duly licensed and are the choice of the community to be served.

The county commissioners shall examine all applicants for licenses to teach, giving previous public notice of the day upon which the examinations are to take place, and shall invite such persons as they think proper to assist. Applicants shall be examined upon orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, arithmetic, and the science and practice of teaching in common schools. The examinations shall be held throughout the State on a day or days to be fixed by the State school commissioner, and by questions prepared and sent out by him to the county school commissioners, the answers to which shall be graded according to rules also prescribed by the State commissioner. No special examination shall be ordered except in great emergencies, in which case the county school commissioner or some competent person under his authority shall prepare the questions, but the licenses granted on such examination shall be valid only until the next examination and only in the county of issue. The county board shall have power, if they deem best, to employ teachers at a salary.

After thorough examination of the papers submitted by applicants for licenses as teachers upon the examination conducted the county school commissioner shall issue to the applicants certificates and grant licenses of three grades. A license of the first grade shall continue in force for three years, a license of the second grade for two years, and a license of the third grade for one year, in the county of issue, but good in another when indorsed by its county commissioner. All applicants must submit written testimonials of good character. If any applicant shall have shown unusual intelligence in his examination the county commissioner shall forward such papers to the State school commissioner, together with his certificate as to the good moral and professional character of the applicant, and if satisfactory to the State commissioner he shall issue a permanent teacher's license to the applicant, which shall be good in any county, and may be revoked only by the State commissioner. The county commissioner may revoke licenses issued by himself.

It shall be the duty of the teachers to file with the county commissioner at the expiration of each term of school a report of the whole number of scholars admitted to the school during the term, by sex, color, and name, the average attendance. the branches taught, and the number of pupils engaged in each branch, and such other statistics as may be required. Until such report shall have been filed and sworn to it shall not be lawful for the county commissioner to audit the account of said teacher for services rendered.

Preliminary training.-There shall be established in connection with the State university a State normal school for the education and training of teachers for the common schools of this State. The school shall be under a commission com

posed of the State school commissioner and the chancellor of the university and three citizens of Georgia experienced in teaching, to be appointed by the governor, one for two, one for four, and one for six years, but the school shall be under the management of its board of trustees, which, in connection with the commission, shall prescribe such special features and departments as they may think the progress and advancement of the times require. They shall also have authority to make the necessary rules and regulations for the government of the school, and fix the number of its officers. Tuition shall be free to all white male students resident of Georgia; to nonresidents it shall be $150 per annum, but all free students shall obligate themselves in writing to teach within the next five years after their leaving the school for a period equal to that of their attendance upon its course. Certificates of proficiency may be granted by the faculty stating in general terms what branches of education the holder is prepared to teach, which shall entitle to teach in the common schools without further examination according to the grade specified in the certificate. Diplomas may be issued to graduates under conditions prescribed by the board of trustees.

Meetings. It shall be the duty of the State commissioner to organize a teachers' institute in each county for the assembling and instruction of the common-school teachers. The institute shall hold an annual session of one week's duration during June, July, or August, or in some other month, as the commissioner shall deem best. The commissioner may combine the annual sessions of any number of institutes, shall prepare a programme of exercises with a syllabus of each subject named in the programme for each day's session, shall require county superintendents to cooperate at their regular per diem, shall require teachers and those having licenses to attend them, and shall cause the proper county school commissioner to fine absentees. But there shall be separate institutes for white and for colored teachers. He shall employ an expert, named by the county school authorities, at a salary of $25 for the week, to give instruction in the institute, and shall pay teachers whose schools have to be closed on account of their attendance at the institute, their regular salary.

3. SCHOOLS.

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

Attendance.-Admission to all common schools of the State shall be gratuitous to all children between the ages of 6 and 18 years residing in the subdistricts in which the schools are located; but white children and colored children shall not attend the same school, and no teacher receiving or teaching white and colored children in the same school shall be paid from the common school fund. School must be maintained at least three months, or the county forfeits its proportion of the State school fund.

Character of instruction.-There shall be a thorough system of common schools for education in the elementary branches of an English education only, as nearly uniform as practicable. The county board may establish a suitable number of evening schools for the instruction of such youths over 12 years of age as are prevented from attending day schools. The board may also organize in each county one or more manual labor schools on such a plan as shall be self-sustaining, provided the plan be submitted to and approved by the State board of education.

Text books.-The county board of education shall prescribe from time to time what text-books and books of reference shall be used in the common schools of the county, provided that the Bible shall not be excluded and that books once fixed upon shall not be changed for five years save by a three-fourths vote of all the board. But no books of a sectarian or sectional character shall be introduced. No teacher shall receive pay for a pupil using other than the text-books prescribed.

Buildings. The county board shall have power to purchase, lease, or rent school sites, to build, repair, or rent schoolhouses, to purchase maps, globes, etc., and to make all other arrangements of this kind necessary to the efficient operation of the school under their care, and the board is invested with the title, care, and custody of all schoolhouses, sites, school libraries, apparatus, or other property belonging to subdistricts.

4. FINANCES.

Funds (permanent or special).—Taxation.

Funds.-The poll tax, special tax on shows and exhibitions, all taxes on the sale of spirituous and malt liquors, dividends upon the stock of the State in the Bank of the State of Georgia, Bank of Augusta, Georgia Railroad and Banking Com

pany, and such other means or moneys as now belong by law to the common-school fund, one-half of the proceeds of the rental of the Western and Atlantic Railroad, or one-half its annual net earnings, as ascertained by subtracting the annual cost of running and keeping up the road from the annual gross receipts under any change of policy which the State may adopt hereafter in reference to it, all endowments, devises, gifts, and bequests made or hereafter to be made to the State or State board of education, the proceeds of any commutation tax for military service, all taxes which may be assessed on such domestic animals as from their nature and habits are destructive to other property, all money received by the State agricultural department for the inspections of oils and fertilizers in excess of what may be deemed necessary to defray the expenses of that department, the net amount arising from the hire of convicts of this State after all expenses that are now or may hereafter be made a charge upon the proceeds arising from that source shall have been deducted, money arising from the lease of oyster lands [and the income], any educational fund now belonging to the State (except the endowment of and debt due to the University of Georgia) shall be a part of the commonschool fund of the State; and when received and receipted for, from whatever source received, it shall be the duty of the legal receiving officer to keep the same separate and distinct from other funds. The fund shall be used for educational purposes and none other, and shall not be invested in bonds of the State or in other stock, except when investment is necessary to carry out the conditions of an endowment, devise, gift, or bequest. The manner of distributing the fund is given below.

Taxation.-Beginning with the taxes for the year 1894, all moneys belonging to the common-school fund of the State, including poll tax and specific taxes, shall be paid direct into the State treasury in like manner as other State taxes are paid, and said common-school fund shall be used for none other than common-school purposes, as provided by law: Provided, however, That when the poll tax from any county is received into the treasury said poll tax shall be placed on the books of the treasurer to the credit of the county from which it comes, and shall form a part of the apportioned fund belonging exclusively to that county, in accordance with the general plan hereinafter set out. On the 31st day of March, the 30th day of June, the 30th day of September, and the 31st day of December annually, or as soon thereafter as practicable, the treasurer of the State shall place to the credit of each county in the State, on his books, its proportionate part of the commonschool fund in the treasury on each of said dates, such proportionate part to be determined by the State school commissioner, the comptroller-general, and the treasurer, and to be based upon the proportion which the school population in each county bears to the school population in the State, as shown by the last school census: Provided, however, That the salaries of the State school commissioner and his clerk or clerks, and the expenses of his office, and any other items properly chargeable under the law to the general school fund, shall be deducted out of the said fund before making the aforesaid apportionment to the counties.

On the 30th day of April, the 31st day of July, the 31st day of October, and the 31st day of January of each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, the county school commissioner of each county shall, under the approval of the county board of education, transmit to the State school commissioner an itemized statement of the various sums due and unpaid by the board of education on said several dates, whether the same be for teachers' salaries, for pay of the county school commissioner, or for any other item of expense properly chargeable under the law to the county board of education; and when said itemized statements have been approved by the State school commissioner and presented to the governor, the governor shall issue his warrants upon the treasurer for all the funds standing to the credit of each several county upon the books of the treasurer, or for such part thereof as may be needed to liquidate the indebtedness of the county board of education of such county, as shown by each itemized statement aforesaid. And the State treasurer shall, upon presentation of the warrants aforesaid, draw his checks for the amounts of said warrants in favor of the county school commissioners of the several counties, and the State school commissioner shall immediately transmit said checks to the several county school commissioners, who shall promptly disburse the money so received in payment of the sums set out in the itemized statement aforesaid; and if the money is not sufficient to pay said sums in full, then it shall be prorated among the various items. And the county boards of education are hereby authorized to make their contracts in such manner that the amounts payable to teachers shall become due on the last day of each quarter for services rendered during that quarter.

In order to make the apportionment herein provided, and in order to make quarterly payments to the teachers in the common schools of the State, the treasurer

of the State is hereby authorized to draw, on the first day of April, on any funds in the treasury, $300,000 to pay the teachers quarterly, the same to be repaid from the school fund when the same shall be paid into the treasury.

Beginning with January 1, 1895, and continuing thereafter, the school year shall be coincident with the fiscal year of the schools, to wit, from January 1 to December 31, next following, and the State school commissioner shall, on or before the first Tuesday in June of each year, make an approximate estimate of the entire common school fund of the State for the next succeeding school year, and shall at once communicate, in writing, to the county school commissioner of each county the amount of money approximately estimated that will be payable to his county; and on the second Tuesday in June of each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, each county board of education shall meet and make the necessary arrangements for placing the schools in operation for the next school year, and shall have full authority in their discretion to fix salaries for the payment of teachers, instead of paying them according to enrollment or attendance.

Where schools are sustained by local taxation for five months or more, the State school commissioner shall, on the 1st day of January, April, July, and October of each year, or as soon thereafter as practicable, notify the governor of the amount of funds standing to the credit of each of such counties on the books of the treasurer on said dates, arising from the quarterly apportionments aforesaid, and thereupon the governor shall issue his warrants for said sums, and the treasurer shall draw his checks for the said sums without requiring the itemized statements as provided above; and the State school commissioner shall immediately transmit said checks to the officer under the local school system authorized to receive its funds. And the State school commissioner shall, in like manner, pay over to the proper officer under the school board of any town or city having a school system sustained by local taxation for a period of five months or more, and to which he is now authorized by law to make direct apportionments, such proportion of the entire county fund as shown on the books of the treasurer as the school population of the town or city bears to the population of the county as shown by the last school census.

In any county in which a county-school system is already in existence a local tax to supplement the State apportionment in support of the common schools may be levied and collected in the following manner: When two successive grand juries of a county shall recommend in their general presentments that a local tax shall be levied in support of the common schools of the county an election shall be held, due notice being given, and if two-thirds of the electors qualified have voted for local taxation for public schools the fact shall be certified to the county board of education, who shall levy the tax. But if there be in the county any town having a school system of its own sustained by local taxation and its share of the common-school fund, the qualified electors thereof shall not vote in the election for taxing the counties for school purposes.

FLORIDA.

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM.

State board of education.-State superintendent of public instruction.—County board of public instructions-County superintendents.-School supervisors.— Subdistrict trustees.

State board of education.-The State board of education shall consist of the gov ernor, secretary of state, attorney-general, State treasurer, and State superintendent. The board shall assume charge of all lands held by or granted to the State for educational purposes, and of all educational funds; decide all questions and appeals regarding the interest of the school law and those referred to them by the State superintendent; remove any subordinate for unfitness; keep in view the establishment of schools on a broad and liberal basis, the object of which shall be to impart instruction to youth in the profession of teaching in the knowledge of the natural sciences, the theory and practice of agriculture, horticulture, mining, engineering, and the mechanic arts, in the ancient and modern languages, higher mathematics, literature, and in useful and ornamental branches not taught in common schools; cooperate with the superintendent in the general diffusion of knowledge in the State; fill vacancies on the nomination of the State superintendent in county school boards; elect a faculty for the State normal schools and supervise them.

State superintendent of public instruction.-The State superintendent of public instruction shall have the oversight, charge, and management of all matters per

taining to public schools and buildings. He shall prepare and distribute all necessary copies of the school law, forms, etc.; call conventions of county superintendents and other officers for obtaining and imparting information on the practical workings of the school system and the means of improving it; call institutes to apportion the interest on the common-school fund and the fund raised on the 1 mill State tax among the several counties in proportion to the children 6 to 21 years of age; decide appeals arising under the interpretation of this act, prepare questions for county examinations and distribute them, and hold written examinations for State certificates, visit each seminary at least once in each year, and make an annual report to the governor, giving a full account of the doings of the respective boards of education, their financial acts, and of the prospects, progress, and usefulness of the seminaries.

County board of public instruction.-The county board of public instruction is elected biennially, vacancies being filled by the State board on nomination of the State superintendent. It consists of 3 persons, whose compensation shall be $2 per diem for actual service and 5 cents a mile for traveling expenses. Their duties are to take possession of all school property, to locate, erect, rent, furnish, repair schoolhouses, and maintain schools; to employ teachers, to prescribe and grade the course of study, to fix the compensation of the county superintendents, and to hold regular meetings and perform all acts reasonable and necessary for the promotion of the educational interests of the county. The board shall prepare an itemized estimate showing the amount of money required for the maintenance of the common schools, which shall not be fewer than 3 nor more than 5 mills. They shall fix the time of opening of the schools and the number of hours that shall be considered a school day.

County superintendent of public instruction.-The county superintendent is elected biennially, and is directed to make timely inspection of the county, ascertain the locations in which schools are needed and the amount of aid that the citizens of the neighborhood are willing to contribute, to visit each school once during a terin, noting its scholastic and hygienic condition and the fitness of its supervisor, whom he shall nominate and with whom he shall frequently confer, to keep a record of the expenses of each school, to decide disputed questions, to examine applicants for teaching and issue certificates, which are subject to revocation, and in case of failure of the supervisor to take the census to perform that duty.

School supervisor.—Appointed by the county board of public instruction, the school supervisor is directed to supervise the work and management of the school over which he has jurisdiction, and report monthly to the county board of public instruction. In addition to his duty of general supervision and management he shall every four years take a census of children 4 to 21 and 6 to 21 years of age, and for each name he shall be paid 3 cents.

Subdistrict trustees.-If the county board of public instruction deem it advisable, or if one-fourth of the property-holding voters of an incorporated town or city demand it, the board may cause an election district or incorporated town or city to be a school subdistrict. The subdistrict shall elect three trustees biennially.

2. TEACHERS.

Appointment, qualifications, and duties.-Preliminary training.-Meetings. Appointment, qualifications, and duties.-No person shall be permitted to teach in the public schools who does not hold a teacher's certificate. There shall be five grades of certificates-third grade, second grade, first grade, State, and life certificates, to be granted after written or written and oral examinations, the life certificate alone excepted. The applicant for examination shall present to the examiner a written indorsement of good moral character and shall pay an examination fee of $1. For a third-grade certificate the applicant shall be examined in orthography, reading, arithmetic, English grammar, composition, penmanship, United States history, geography, physiology, and theory and practice of teaching, and must obtain a general average of 60 per cent, and not lower than 40 per cent in any one branch. The certificate is good for one year, but the holder of a third grade certificate can not teach a second year under another. For a second grade an average of 75 per cent shall be required, but not less than 50 per cent in any branch. This certificate is good for two years, and no person will be granted more than two. For a first-grade certificate the applicant shall be examined in civil government, algebra, bookkeeping, physical geography, in addition to the branches required for the third-grade certificate, and must obtain an average of 80 per cent, nor fall below 60 in any branch. A State certificate shall be issued only by the ED 9473

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