Page:History of Richland County, Ohio.djvu/162

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��HISTOKY OF OHIO.

��Advocate, of Cincinnati, were issued. In 18-46, the School Journal began to be published by A.

D. Lord, of Kirtland. The same year saw the Free School Clarion, by W. Bowen, of Massillon, and the School Friend, by W. B. Smith & Co., of Cincinnati. The next year, W. H. Moore & Co., of Cincinnati, started the Western School Journal. In 1851, the Ohio Teacher, by Thomas Rainey, ajDpeared; the JVews and Edu- cator, in 1863, and the Educational Times, in 1866. In 1850, Dr. Lord's Journal of Educa- tion was united with the School Friend, and became the recognized organ of the teachers in Oliio. The Doctor remained its principal editor until 1856, when he was succeeded by Anson Smyth, who edited the journal one year. In 1857, it was edited by John D. Caldwell ; in 1858 and and 1859, by W. T. Coggeshall; in 1860, by Anson Smyth again, when it passed into the hands of

E. E. White, who yet controls it. It has an immense circulation among Ohio teachers, and, though competed by other journals, since started, it maintains its place.

The school system of the State may be briefly explained as follows: Cities and incorporated vil- lages are independent of township and county con- trol, in the management of schools, having boards of education and examiners of their own. Some of them are organized for school purposes, under special acts. Each township has a board of edu- cation, composed of one member from each sub- district. The township clerk is clerk of this board, but has no vote. Each subdistrict has a local board of trustees, which manages its school affairs, subject to the advice and control of the township board. These officers are elected on the first Monday in April, and hold their offices three years. An enumeration of all the youth between the ages of five and twenty-one is made yearly. All public schools are required to be in session at least twenty-four weeks each year. The township clerk reports annually such facts concerning school affairs as the law requires, to the county auditor, who in turn reports to the State Commissioner, who collects these reports in a general report to the Legislature each year.

A board of examiners is appointed in each county by the Probate Judge. This board has power to grant certificates for a term not exceed- ing two years, and good only in the county in which they are executed ; they may be revoked on sufficient cause. In 1864, a State Board of J]xaminers was created, with power to issue life cer-

��tificates, valid in all parts of the State. Since then, up to January 1, 1879, there have been 188 of these issued. They are considered an excellent test of scholarship and ability, and are very credit- able to the holder.

The school funds, in 1865, amounted to $3,271,- 275.66. They were the proceeds of appropriations of land by Congress for school purposes, upon which the State pays an annual interest of 6 per cent. The funds are known as the Virginia Mili- tary School Fund, the proceeds of eighteen quar- ter-townships and three sections of land, selected by lot from lands lying in the United States Military Reserve, appropriated for the use of schools in the Virginia Military Reservation ; the United States Military School Fund, the proceeds of one thirty-sixth part of the land in the United States Military District, appropriated "for the use of schools within the same;" the Western Reserve School Fund, the proceeds from fourteen quarter- townships, situated in the United States JMilitary District, and 37,758 acres, most of which was lo- cated in Defiance, Williams, Paulding, Van Wert and Putnam Counties, appropriated for the use of the schools in the Western Reserve; Section 16, the proceeds from the sixteenth section of each township in that part of the State in which the Indian title was not extinguished in 1803; the Moravian School Fund, the proceeds from one thirty-sixth part of each of three tracts of 4,000 acres situated in Tuscarawas County, orig- inally granted by Congress to the Society of United Brethren, and reconveyed by this Society to the United States in 1834. The income of these funds is not distributed by any uniform rule, owing to defects in the granting of the funds. The territo- rial divisions designated receive the income in proportion to the whole number of youth therein, while in the remainder of the State, the rent of Section 16, or the interest on the proceeds arising from its sale, is paid to the inhabitants of the originally surveyed townships. In these terri- torial divisions, an increase or decrease of popula- tion must necessarily increase or diminish the amount each youth is entitled to receive; and the fortunate location or judicious sale of the sixteenth section may entitle one township to receive a large sum, while an adjacent township receives a mere pittance. This inequality of benefit may be good for localities, but it is certainly a detriment to the State at large. There seems to be no legal remedy for it. In addition to the income from the before- mentioned ftinds, a variable revenue is received

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