COMMON SCHOOLS. The Common School System of this State, considering the whole circle of its relations to our political institutions, our civil condition, and the structure of society among us, may well be deemed the most important institution of the Commonwealth. The general organization of the system may be compendiously described as follows: The head and centre of the system is the Secretary of State, who is, by virtue of that office, Superintendent of Common Schools. The other permanent administrative agents of the system as constituted by law, are the Clerks and Treasurers of counties; the Supervisors, School Commissioners, Inspectors, Clerks, and Collectors of Towns; and the Trustees of School Districts; all of whom are elec.ed by the people, except the Treasurers of counties, who are appointed by the county Boards of Supervisors. The Comptroller and the Treasurer of the State are associated with the financial action of the system. In the year next following each census of the state, whether taken under the authority of the State, or of the United States, that is once in every five years, it is the duty of the Superintendent to apportion the moneys arising from the Common School Fund, among the counties, and the quota of each countiy among the towns and cities therein, according to the ratio of the population in each, compared with that of the whole state. He then certifies such an apportionment to the Comptroller, and sends notice thereof to each County Clerk, stating the day on which the moneys will be payable. That day is the 1st of February in each year, and the moneys are paid by the State Treasurer, on the warrents of the Comptroller, to the several County Treasurers, who pay over the town quotas to the School Commissioners of the respective towns, to be distributed among the school districts. Each County Clerk, on receiving from the Superintendent, notice of the apportionment, must give notice thereof to the clerk of the Supervisors, to be laid before their Board at their next meeting, and they must thereupon assess an equal amount upon the towns, to be collected by the town collectors, with legal fees, as they collect their other town taxes. The levy of this sum is the statutory condition on which the School Fund money is distributed to the districts. These School Commissioners are three in number, elected annually in each town, and they are constituted by statute a corporation so far as to enable them to hold property for the use of the schools in the town, and to sue and be sued in their official capacity. They also set off, arrange, and modify the school districts; and it is their duty annually, in July, to report in writing to the County Clerk, the number of districts in their town; the time during which the schools have been kept therein by qualified teachers; the amount of School Fund money received, as well as the amount received from the Town Collector; the whole number of pupils actually attending school, distinguishing the number over five and under sixteen years of age; and in short, to report every thing relating to their duties, and the general legal condition of the schools. The two Inspectors in each town, together with the Commissioners, constitute a Board for ascertaining, by examination, the qualifications of teachers. Any two of the Board make a quorum, and their certificate of qualification is necessary to entitle a district to the actual receipt of its quota of the School Fund money. It is their duty also to visit the schools. The Trustees of the Districts are also a corporation so far as to enable them to hold property for the use of the District. They take charge of the schoolhouses, their erection and repair; they make the contracts with the teachers; provide fuel for the schools; call meetings of the taxable inhabitants of the district, for levying whatever assessment may be necessary for district purposes, and apportion such assessments; direct the manner in which the rate bills for teachers' wages shall be made up, with authority to say who shall be exempted, for poverty; in short, they have charge of all the pecuniary concerns of the district, and they must make report annually to the School Commissioners, who, as already stated, report to the County Clerk, and he to the Superintendent, thus making the chain of accountability complete. Such is an outline of the general organization of the Common School system of this state, as it has existed for many years, and as applied to the towns. The cities, and many of the incorporated villages, are accommodated with various modifications of the system, adapted to their peculiar circumstances. Some additions and improvements have been recently engrafted on the system, but without making any essential changes in its machinery. Among these additions is the appointment of a GENERAL DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENT, who may perform all the duties of the Superintendent, in case of his absence, or of a vacancy in his office. By a law of 1841, also, the board of supervisors in each county, is directed to appoint one, and if the number of school districts exceeds 200, may appoint two DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENTS, who hold their office for two years, and whose duty it is to visit the schools in their several jurisdictions, and examine into all matters relating to the government, instruction, course of study, text-books, discipline, and the entire economy and management of the schools, school-houses, and districts; to examine the teachers employed, and give or annul certificates of qualifications; and by every means in their power to promote sound education and elevate the character of the schools. They are, also, to make annual reports to the Superintendent on all the above named topics. These Deputy Superintendents are paid two dollars per day, for each day of actual service, with the proviso that their entire pay for any one year shall not exceed $500 to each. But by far the most important improvement of the system, is the establishment of District School Libraries, by acts passed in 1828 and 1839. Those acts authorize each school district to raise by tax, twenty dollars, in the first instance, and in each subsequent year, ten dollars, to be exclusively applied to the purchase and augmentation of a library for the use of the school. The district clerk, or other person to be appointed at the annual meeting of the district, is to be the librarian, and accountable for the safe keeping of the books, the property in which is vested in the district trustees. To aid these libraries, the sum of $55,000, from the U. S. Deposit Fund and an equal amount by tax, is to be annually distributed, in like manner as the other school moneys, with the proviso that at the end of. five years this sum may be applied in support of the library, or to the payment of teachers' wages, at the option of the district. The regulations for the management of the libraries, are to be furnished by the Superintendent of Common Schools, who is also authorized to select the library books, when so requested by the trustees of a district, in pursuance of the vote of a district meeting. By the last annual report of the Superintendent, dated January 12, 1843, it appears that the number of counties in the state was then 59, comprising 80 towns; 9 cities containing 64 wards; and that, on the 1st of July, 1842, the whole number of school districts, as nearly as could be ascertained from the returns, was 10,893, from 248 of which districts no reports had been received. At a fair allowance for the usual increase from the 1st of July, the date of the School Commissioner's reports, up to the date of the Superintendent's report, he estimates the whole number of districts at 11,000. The whole number of pupils between the ages of 5 and 16 years, residing in all the reporting districts, excluding the city of New-York, was, on the first of January, 1842, as shown by the returns, 601,765; the whole who attended school more or less during the year, with the same exclusion, was 571,130; and the whole number thus attending in the city of New-York, was 27,619. The average length of time of attendance in the year, was 8 months; but the whole number actually attending, in 43 counties, at the time of visiting them by the county superintendents, is reported as being only 137,384; while the whole number in those 43 counties, returned as having been in school for some portion of the year, was 494,292. This shows great irregularity of attendance. The number of volumes in the school libraries January 1, 1842, 815,231, showing an increase of nearly 200,000 volumes during the preceding year; and the number will probably be increased by the end of this year to 1,000,000 volumes. Out of the city of New-York there are only about 500 colored children attending schools established under the act of 1841, sec. 15. Of these, 84 are in Albany, 31 in Broome county, 175 in Columbia, 140 in Kings, and 58 in Orange. The public money apportioned to them is $400. The average of teachers' wages during the past year, was $17 per month for male teachers, and for female teachers $7. The following is the list of Deputy Superintendents in the several counties. DEPUTY SUPERINTENDENTS OF COMMON SCHOOLS. Albany county-Francis Dwight, Albany city. Allegany-Ralph H. Spencer, Hunt's Hollow; H. Wilson, Little Genesee. Broome-G. T. Frazier, Binghamton. Cattaraugus-E. A. Rice, East Otto; Jos. H. Wright, Machias. Cayuga-E. G. Storkes, Sennet. Chautauque-L. Parsons, Westfield. Chemung-Nathan Tidd, Millport. Chenango-R. K. Bourne, Pitcher. Clinton D. S. T. Douglass, Plattsburgh. Columbia-D. G. Woodin, Austerlitz. Cortland-Henry S. Randall, Cortlandville. Delaware-R. S. Hughston, Sidney; D. McFarland, Delhi. Dutchess-A. S. Clement, Poughkeepsie; W. Baxter, Wappinger's Creek. Erie-Enoch S. Ely, Buffalo. Essex-E. J. Shumway, Essex. Franklin-D. H. Stevens, Moria. Fulton-F. B. Sprague, Kingsboro'. Genesee-David Ney, Darien. Greene-C. C. W. Cleaveland, Catskill. Hamilton-B. Holcomb, Morehouseville. Herkimer-J. Henry, jr. Little-Falls. Jefferson-L. H. Brown, Watertown; Ira Mayhew, Adams. Kings-Theodore F. King, Brooklyn. Livingston-Ira Patchin, Livonia. Madison Thos. Barlow, Canastota; E. Manchester, Pratt's Hollow. Montgomery-W. Hough, St. Johnsville. New-York-William L. Stone, New-York city. Niagara-M. H. Fitts, Lewis'on. Oneida S. Moulton, Whitesboro'; Elon Comstock, Stokes. Onondaga-Alanson Edwards, Syracuse; Crson Barnes, Baldwinsville. Ontario A. T. Hopkins, Victor. Orange-J. C. Tooker, Montgomery. Orleans-E. R. Reynolds, Albion. Oswego-O. W. Kandall, Phoenix; D. P. Tallmadge, Mexico. Otsego J. Hetherington, Cherry-Valiey; L. R. Paimer, Cooperstown. Queens-P. Potter, Jamaica. Rensselaer-Z. P. Burdick, Grafton. Rockland-N. G. Blauvelt, Scotland. St. Lawrence-S. Foord, Pots iam; J. Hopkins, Gouverneur. Saratoga A. Smith, Saratoga Springs. Schenectady-A. Fonda, Schenectady. Schoharie E. Smith, Cobleskill. Seneca A. R. Wheeler, Waterloo. Suffol―W. S. Preston, Patchogue. Sullivan-J. W. Myers, Monticello. Tioga-G. Williams, Owego. Tompkins-J. S. Denman, Ithaca. Ulster A. G. Harlenburgh, Uls er. Warren-Seth C. Baldwin, Caldwell. Washington-William Wright, Cambridge; Albert Wright, Mide Gran ville. Wayna-Philo D. Greene, Marion. Westchester-T. Little, White Plains. Wyoming-A. S. Stevens, Attica. COMMON SCHOOL FUND. Capital. The proceeds of the sales of all lands belonging to the state, are, by the constitution, appropriated exclusively to the Common School Fund. The lands remaining unsold, consist of about 400,000 acres, principally situated in the Fourth Senate district, in the northern part of the state, and are valued by the Surveyor-General at $200,000-constituting the unproductive capital of the School Fund. The productive capital of the fund amounted, on the 30th of September last, to $1,968,290.72, showing a decrease during the fiscal year ending on that date, of $68,334.96. This fund consists of the following items: Amount of public money paid for teachers' wages in the several districts, during the year 1841, as reported by the trustees, Amount paid for the same purpose, on rate bills, by individuals, $588,506 32 468,688 22 Receipts in 1842. Whole amount of public money received by commissioners, from all sources, during the year, ending July 1, 1842, Amount apportioned for teachers' wages,. For libraries,.. Balance in commissioners' hands, Expenditures of 1842. $666,903 10 $573,016 38 666,285 55 $617 55 On the first day of February last, there was distributed to the several districts, under the apportionmet of 1841, from the revenue of the Common School Fund, and the annual appropriation from the income of the U. S. Deposit Fund, the sum of... An equal amount raised by supervisors,. An amount equal to deficiency of previous year, $275,000 00 275,000 00 1,329 78 20,000 00 $667,147 64 Amount apportioned for teachers' wages, as per re |