Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume VII.djvu/735

 GEORGIA 723 proportion to the number of youth from 6 to 18 years of age and of confederate soldiers under 30 years of age resident in each, and is required to make an annual report to the legislature. Each county constitutes a school district, under the control of a county board of education consisting of five freeholders, who are elected for four years by the grand jury. The board chooses a secretary for the same term, who is ex officio the county school com- missioner, divides the county into subdistricts, and in each is required to establish one or more primary schools, and, where the pub- lic wants demand them, graded schools from the primary to the high school grade. The county boards have a general supervision of the schools and school houses of their counties, employing the teachers, and prescribing the text books, but no sectarian nor sectional books are to be used, nor can the Bible be excluded from the public schools. These boards con- stitute a tribunal for the determination of any local controversy respecting the construction and administration of the school laws, an ap- peal lying from their decisions to the state school commissioner, and are required to pro- vide separate schools, with equal facilities, for white and colored children. The county school commissioner is the medium of communication between the state commissioner and the sub- ordinate school officers ; he is required to visit each school in his county at least twice a year, to make an annual census of the children of school age, to apportion the school fund of the county to the subdistricts in proportion to the number of such children in each, and to make such reports to the .state commissioner as may be required. He examines teachers, who are licensed by the county board, and are divided into three grades, with licenses continuing one, two, and three years respectively. JSTo county is entitled to its share of the state school fund unless the county board has provided by tax- ation or otherwise for keeping primary schools in operation for three months in the year, or two months in the case of ambulatory schools, which may be established in counties in which from sparseness of population it is impractica- ble to maintain schools for three months. The schools are free to the children of the respec- tive school districts. The county boards may establish evening schools for youths over 12 years of age who cannot attend during the day, and under the direction of the state board they may organize self-sustaining manual labor schools. Public school buildings and furniture and the site (not more than four acres) of a public school house are exempt from taxation and from sale on execution. The school system of two cities and of four counties is organized under special laws. The school fund consists of the proceeds of the poll tax and of the taxes on shows and exhibitions, and on the sale of spirit- uous and malt liquors, one half of the monthly payments made by the lessees of the Western and Atlantic railroad, the dividends on 186 shares of the Georgia railroad and banking company, set apart as a permanent educational fund by the act of Jan. 22, 1852, and the inter- est (6 per cent.) on $350,000 in bonds issued under the act of Dec. 11, 1858, as a permanent school fund. By an act of 1818 certain lands or the proceeds thereof were set apart for the education of poor children, but it is believed that but a small portion is now available. By the act of Feb. 19, 1873, it is provided that when legal bonds of the state are purchased and cancelled, or paid off, the same amount of bonds having 100 years to run shall be issued by the governor payable to the school fund, and that the interest on these at the rate of 7 per cent, per annum shall be paid semi-annually for the support of the public schools. From the adoption of the constitution of 1868 to Dec. 1, 1873, $739,722 42 belonging to the school fund had been collected, of which $354,- 418 39 had been diverted to other uses, but measures had recently been taken to restore it to the proper channel. The present school rev- enue is about $250,000 a year. The state school commissioner in 1873 reported (two counties wanting) 349,164 children of school age, of whom 198,816 were white and 150,348 colored. Public schools were in operation in 120 coun- ties ; 89 reported 1,379 white and 356 colored schools; number of pupils enrolled, 76,157, of whom 58,499 were white and 17,658 colored; average attendance, 32,224. According to the United States census of 1870, the state contained 1,880 schools, having 2,432 teachers (1,517 male and 915 female), 66,150 pupils (32,775 male and 33,375 female), and an annual income of $1,253,299, of which $66,560 was derived from endowments, $114,626 from taxation and public funds, and $1,072,113 from other sources, in- cluding tuition fees. Of this number 246 were public schools, viz. : 4 normal, 9 high, 26 gram- mar, 18 graded common, and 189 ungraded com- mon, having 327 teachers, 11,150 pupils, and an income of $175,844, of which $59,293 was de- rived from taxation. Of the schools not pub- lic, 151 were classical (28 colleges and 123 acad- emies), 3 professional (1 law and 2 medical), and 9 technical (3 commercial, 1 for the blind, 1 for the deaf and dumb, and 4 of art and music). Of the residue, 1,452 were day and boarding schools and 19 parochial and charity schools. The colleges had 77 male and 56 female teach- ers, 973 male and 1,620 female pupils, and an income from endowments of $36,350, and from other sources of $112,516, The university of Georgia, at Athens, was chartered in 1795 and organized in 1801. It has a permanent endow- ment of $100,000, derived from the sale of lands set apart in 1784 by the revolutionary statesmen and soldiers of Georgia, to found a university. The interest on this sum, which has been invested by the legislature, is paid by the state. The university has a preparatory department, an academic department, embra- cing the ordinary branches of collegiate study, and a law department. The state college of