Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 23.djvu/273



EDUCATION IN CONVENTION OF 1857 225

fourteen years instead of five years and was a great hindrance to educational advancement. No definite poli- cies were established so that the county superintendents organized the schools to suit themselves. The salary of a county superintendent was small at that time and not sufficient to draw capable men. As a result many men of mediocre caliber held these positions. Their work in general corresponded with their salaries and, coupled with the lack of a state policy or plan, the school advance- ment was retarded to a great extent.

The common school fund 13 was very amply provided for in the Oregon constitution, perhaps including more definite sources than any other state up to this time with the exception of Wisconsin. 14 This section is like the one in the constitution of Wisconsin in many respects, in fact the similarity is remarkable even to the wording. It includes the proceeds from the lands given to the state for educational purposes, or when the purpose is not stated, from escheats and forfeitures, military exemption money, gifts, bequests, lands given by Congress and five per cent of the sales of all public lands. The fund was to remain irreducible, while the interest was for the support of the common schools in each district and suit- able libraries. The income from this fund was to be distributed among the counties in proportion to the chil- dren residing therein between the ages of four and twenty years.

The details of the system of the common schools were left to the legislature, the only provision being that the system be established in a general and uniform manner. 15 A motion to limit the schools to white children failed, as the convention thought that negroes and Indians could be excluded otherwise.

13 See Oregon Constitution, Article VIII, Section 2.

14 Wisconsin included fines from the penal law violations which Oregon omitted.

15 See Constitution of Oregon, Article VIII, Section 3.