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 governor, 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 mechanicarts, 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 pertaining 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. 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 term, 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 94-73 State superintendent to those holding a first-grade certificate who have taught twenty-four months or more (eight within the State) successfully under a firstgrade certificate and shall also pass in geometry, trigonometry, physics, zoology, botany, rhetoric, English literature, mental science, and general history, and the subjects required for a first-grade certificate, and make an average of 85 and of 60 or more in any subject; it holds for five years. Any teacher holding a State certificate who has taught successfully in a high school in this State for the period of thirty months may be granted a life certificate without further examination, if indorsed by three persons holding State certificates as possessing eminent teaching ability, but special life certificates may be granted eminently successful kindergarten or primary teachers who have taught three years, only good, however, for those departments. Second and third grade certificates are good only in the county where issued, but a first-grade certificate may be indorsed by the superintendent of any county. Two examinations are held annually, and applicants for first, second, or third grade are examined by county superintendents. The county board appoints three teachers having the highest grade certificates to grade the papers, each to receive $2 per diem and a mileage of 5 cents. Teachers are required to inculcate the moral and personal virtues, to prevent defacement of school property, to avoid severe and degrading punishments, to suspend pupils, and to hold a public examination. Preliminary training. One white male or female student from each senatorial district in the State shall be admitted to all the rights and privileges of the literary and classical departments of the Florida normal school and business institute, the appointment to be made by the senator of the district. The normal school for colored pupils, organized on the same plan as that for whites, is also under the control of the State board of education. Meetings. The State superintendent and the county school boards are authorized to hold teachers' institutes. 3. SCHOOLS. Attendance.-Character of instruction. -Text-books.-Buildings. [A law of 1895 makes it punishable by a fine or imprisonment to admit persons of either color into the same school, whether "public, private, or parochial," when sustained by any individual body, association, or corporation.] Attendance.- White and colored children shall not be taught in the same school. Schools must be taught at least four months in each year, and be open to all children 6 to 21 years of age. Any county neglecting to maintain schools shall forfeit its proportion of the common-school fund. Character of instruction.- [The subjects taught in the schools may be inferred from the subjects of the third grades of certificates granted teachers. See Teachers, Appointment and qualifications.) The county board of public instruction shall do whatever is necessary for grading and classifying the pupils and providing separate schools for the separate classes and for establishing, when required by the patrons, higher grades of instruction when the number competent to pursue them is sufficient. Text-books. No public official or teacher shall receive any private fee, donation, or compensation of any kind in any manner for the introduction or exchange of any schoolbook, on penalty of fine of not fewer than $50 or imprisonment not fewer than thirty days. Buildings. The county board of education shall provide a site for each school, with not less than one-half an acre in the rural districts and as nearly as large as may be in villages and cities, the situation to be dry, airy, healthful, and pleasant and reasonably central, and to erect, rent, furnish, and repair schoolhouses and their appurtenances. 4. FINANCES. Funds (permanent and special). -Taxatio Funds (permanent and special). -The proceeds of all lands that have been or may hereafter be granted to the State by the United States for public-school purposes, unspecified donations to the State, State appropriations, escheated property and forfeitures, and 25 per cent of the sales of public lands which are now or may hereafter be owned by the State shall be the State school fund, the interest of which shall be applied exclusively to the support and maintenance of free public schools, and apportioned among the counties according to the children 6 to 21 years of age. Taxation. A special tax of 1 mill on the dollar shall be apportioned annually for the support of public schools among the counties, according to the children 6 to 21 years of age. Each county shall be required to assess and collect annually for the support of public free schools a tax of not fewer than 3 nor more than 5 mills. In special districts an additional tax of not more than 3 mills may be raised. ALABAMA. 1. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM. State superintendent of education.—County superintendent.—County educational board (of examiners).—Township superintendent. State superintendent of education. There shall be elected biennially a State superintendent of education, at a salary of $2,250 per annum, who shall give bond with sureties in the sum of $15,000. He shall have an office at the capital, where the records of his office shall be kept open to all interested and where he shall give attendance when not absent on official business. He may employ a clerk at a salary of $1,500. His duties shall be to improve and to exercise a general supervision over all the educational interests of the State, and, more specifically, he shall require school officers to report on matters relating to the educational fund, on the condition of schools and the management thereof, and in case of noncompliance may remove the offender. He shall, as far as practicable, visit every county in the State for the purpose of inspection of the condition of the schools and of the accounts of the local officers, and for the purpose of diffusing information regarding the importance of public schools, shall encourage and assist in organizing and conducting teachers' institutes, shall apportion the educational fund, prepare and distribute all forms and books required by officers or teachers, shall keep a debtor and creditor account with each township or other school district in the State of all funds accruing thereto for educational purposes, shall institute suit for the recovery of money belonging to the educational fund, shall require and supervise the collection of all poll taxes, shall elicit information regarding school affairs outside of the State, print and distribute the laws, and shall report annually to the governor in writing, giving a brief account of his labors, an abstract of the reports from the county superintendents, estimates and accounts of expenditures of school money, an itemized account showing the disbursement of the contingent and other funds under his control, and such other matters as he may deem expedient. County superintendent. Unless elected by the people a county superintendent of education shall be appointed by the State superintendent for each county for a term of two years. The bond of the county superintendent shall be fixed by the State superintendent, but in no case shall it be less than double the amount of public money coming into his hands and must have good and sufficient sureties. He shall receive for his services $75 and 2 per cent per annum upon the amount of all educational moneys disbursed by him. His duties are to be at his office on the first Saturday of each month, from the beginning of the scholastic year until the close of the public schools for that year, to take charge of the moneys coming into his hands for school purposes, and use the same in paying the expenses of the schools, to make an annual report to the State superintendent, under penalty of fine and removal, showing the amount of money received by him from all sources, his disbursements by items, the amount on hand for each race, and the manner in which he has discharged his duties, delivering a duplicate of the same to the county judge of probate, who shall lay it before the county commissioners' court or board of revenue. County educational board. - (See Teachers, Appointment, etc.) Township superintendents. - When not elected by the people or appointed under special acts there shall be appointed by the county superintendent a township superintendent for each township [see Schools, Attendance] or other school district, subject to the approval of the State superintendent, who shall serve for two years. He shall have the immediate supervision of the public schools of the township and shall have power to establish, subject to the approval of the county superintendent of education, one or more schools of either race in such township. He shall convene the parents of children of school age and consult with them and with a view to subserve their wishes and interests he shall determine the number of schools which shall be established in his district for the current scholastic year, fix the location of each school and the length of session, apportion the school money to each school according to the children of school age who will probably attend it, shall determine what children shall be transferred to another district, and do such other acts as may carry out the law. He shall within 10 days after the meeting report to the county superintendent the number and location of schools, the names of the teachers employed, and the amount of money apportioned to each school. His decision may be appealed from to the county superintendent. He shall contract with teachers, visit schools, enumerate children every second year by race and sex of school age. He is exempt from road and jury duty and poll tax. 2. TEACHERS. Appointment, qualifications, and duties.—Preliminary training.—Meetings. Appointment, qualifications, and duties. -All contracts with teachers must be in writing and shall be approved by the county superintendent to be valid. There shall be three grades of certificates, and every teacher in the public schools must obtain a certificate in one of such grades, but in no case shall an applicant receive a certificate who fails to answer correctly 70 per cent of the questions propounded by the board of examiners. Every applicant for a teacher's certificate must be examined on the following subjects: For the third grade, in orthography, reading, penmanship, practical arithmetic through fractions, primary geography, and the elementary principles of physiology and hygiene; for the second grade, on all the foregoing subjects, and also in practical arithmetic, history of the United States, English grammar, intermediate geography, and elementary algebra; for the first grade, on all the foregoing subjects, and also in higher algebra, natural philosophy, geometry, and the theory and practice of teaching, but no certificate of the first or second grade shall be granted to any person who has not passed a satisfactory examination in physiology and hygiene with special reference to the effects of alcoholic drinks, stimulants, and narcotics upon the human system. A third-grade certificate shall be valid for one year, a second-grade for two years, and a first-grade for three years in the county where issued. There shall be established in each county of the State an educational board, composed of the county superintendent and two teachers, either in public or private schools of the county, appointed by the superintendent annually. The board shall meet quarterly or oftener and shall examine in writing all applicants to teach in the public schools of the county, each of whom, if licensed, shall pay a fee of $1, to be divided between the two appointed members. A diploma from any chartered institution of learning will entitle the applicant to a license on proof of the other qualifications of a good moral character and payment of the fee. Every teacher must forward a quarterly report to the county superintendent setting forth the enrollment, the attendance, transferred pupils, the branches taught and the pupils in each, distinguishing by sex, the monthly pay from school revenue from the townships, the number of days taught, and the amount due. Failure to report works forfeiture of pay. Preliminary training.--[Normal schools are established under special acts and maintained by the State both for white and for colored persons. The schools are under a board of directors and receive from $2,500 to $3,000 and in one case $7,500 annually from the State treasurer. Graduates shall receive a State certificate from the State superintendent, which will entitle the holder to teach anywhere in the State.] Meetings. It shall be the duty of the board of education in each county to organize and maintain therein three teachers' institutes for white and for colored persons, provided there are at least ten licensed teachers of the race in the county holding the institutes. Every teacher holding a license shall be a member, but no fee or assessment shall be imposed on a member without his consent. All persons holding license shall attend at least one county institute, the business of which shall be devoted mainly to discussions and instructions in regard to the methods of teaching and disciplining schools and to the text-books and other matters connected with the schools and school laws. It shall be the duty of the State superintendent to hold or have held within each Congressional district one or more teachers' institutes for one or more weeks during the summer months; and unappropriated money shall be drawn from the State treasury to defray the expenses thereof, but not to exceed $500 in any year nor the amount given for the same purpose by the Peabody Education Fund. 3. SCHOOLS. Attendance.-Buildings. Attendance. The general assembly shall establish, organizo, and maintain a system of public schools throughout the State for children 7 to 21 years, but separate schools shall be provided for children of citizens of African descent. Every |