Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 83.djvu/491

Rh or other means that have been found most effective in promoting consolidation, came the reply that a larger administrative unit is desirable; and the majority favor the county unit with one board of education in charge of all the schools of the county. Under such a system local district feeling is abolished. The county is districted according to topography, roads and population. In Maryland the county is made the tax unit for the collection and distribution of school money. This system is found in the south and is gaining adherents in the west. Oregon has lately made provision for the establishment of a county educational board in counties having sixty or more districts, and for a supervisor for every fifty districts in such a county. In Utah several districts may place themselves under the management of one board of education for the purpose of securing better administration and supervision. Last year New York put a law in operation which combines towns into larger administrative districts and which ought to make supervision of country schools more efficient. The township plan prevails throughout New England and the Middle West, but a number of superintendents in these states express themselves as believing that the county unit would bring even better results.

Legislation designed to promote the efficiency of schools rather than consolidation sometimes forces the latter. Probably the greatest incentive for consolidation in Indiana is the stringent law abolishing all schools where the attendance has been twelve pupils or fewer for the period of a year. Legislation fixing the minimum length of the school year is aiding consolidation in Massachusetts and in other states, as small schools can not afford to keep open for so long a period.

The earliest and most wide-spread encouragement given to consolidation through legislation was that by which transportation of pupils was paid for out of the tax fund. In Chippewa County, Wisconsin, it is estimated that transportation is 50 per cent cheaper than the cost of maintaining two separate schools. Where public conveyance is provided, the increase in enrollment and average attendance is very marked.

One of the latest forms of legislation for encouraging consolidation and improving the work of the schools is that of providing grants of money to be given to schools attaining certain standards of efficiency. Minnesota offers $1,500 yearly to rural schools of four departments maintaining teachers of certain qualifications, a library, and agricultural and industrial work. Smaller sums are given to schools of three and two departments. Aid for building is also granted to the amount of 25 per cent of the cost, provided that no building shall receive more than $1,500. In Washington a bonus of $150 is received by each consolidated school composed of two district schools. A special grant is made of $300 per year by Wisconsin to graded schools of three departments and of $200 to those of two. To schools providing for