to each of the chairmen of the boards of district trustees in such county, the qualified electors of each public school district shall meet at the district school house and elect from among the freeholders and householders who can read and write residing in such districts, a local board of three district trustees whose duty shall be as hereinafter provided. The chairman, or, in his absence, a member of the board of district trustees shall preside over such meeting and shall certify to the county superintendent of education the result of the election held thereat, which certificate must show the names of the district trustees elected at said meeting for the district, and said certificate must be filed with the county superintendent of education within five days after such meeting and election; provided, however, that in the event the chairman or other member of such board of district trustees should not be present at the time fixed for said meeting, or, being present, should wilfully fail or refuse to call said meeting to order or to preside over the same, then the qualified electors of such district assembled may choose from among their number a person to preside over such meeting, and such person shall be fully authorized to so preside and to make the certificate of election of district trustees had at such meeting and to file the same as herein provided. Any qualified voter of such district may, within ten days after the holding of such election, contest the election of any person or persons shown to be elected by said certificate, by filing a contest in writing with the county superintendent of education and addressed to the county board of education, stating therein the ground for such contest, and it shall be the duty of the county board of education, upon notice to them by the county superintendent of education of the filing of such contest, to meet and hear and determine such contests within twenty days from the holding of the election. The county superintendent of education, upon the filing of all such contests, shall immediately notify in writing such person whose election is contested, of the filing of the same and of the date and place where such contest shall be heard. Such district trustees shall hold office for the term of four years from the time of their election and until their successors are elected and qualified.

1698. District trustees; organization of. The trustees provided for in the preceding section shall within ten days after their election or appointment meet at the public school district schoolhouse, or some place more convenient to all concerned, and shall organize by electing one of their number chairman and another secretary.

1699. (3562) (968) Duties of district trustees. The district trustees shall

1. Make enumeration of children within school age as provided by law.

2. Care for all school property.

3. Nominate teachers for their school districts, such nomination to be subject to the approval of the county board of education, the contract to teach to be made with said county board of education.

4. Visit the schools within their respective districts, observe the management of the same, and make quarterly reports of the condition of such schools to the county superintendent of education.

5. Perform such other duties as may be required by the county board of education, hereinafter provided for. If said district trustees shall fail or refuse for a period of thirty days after required in writing by the county board of education to nominate and submit for approval a teacher or teachers for their district, or for such period after so requiring in writing, shall fail or refuse to perform any of the duties required of them under this section, the county board of education shall be authorized to perform any such duties, including the nomination and employment of teachers in lieu of said district trustees, wherein they have failed to perform them.

1700. Graded schools increase number of trustees. Whenever there has been established in any school district a system of graded schools free to the children of school age, within such district for a period of not less than eight months in each year, the electors of such district may increase the number of the district trustees to five, and assume entire control of the public schools therein; provided, the trustees of such districts shall make all reports required by law to the county board of education.

V. COMMENTS ON THE DISTRICT SYSTEM BY SCHOOL OFFICERS

Probably no feature of the American public school system has been so condemned by school officers and for so long as has the district system, yet so great is the conservatism of the rural population that progress in substituting a larger unit of school administration has been very slow. The literature of education contains many excellent articles, comments, and addresses which forcefully reveal the wastefulness and inadequacy of the district unit; we reproduce here only a few of the most pertinent of these. Additional comments and opinions

which reveal the same situation will be given, further on, under Chapters VIII, IX, and X.

1. Some Needed Legislation in Kentucky

[By Supt. M. A. Cassidy, of Lexington.]

[A paper which did much to secure the abolition of the district system in Kentucky. Though written with only a local problem in mind, much that it contains is general in its application. Reprinted from the Bien. Rept. Supt. Publ. Instr. Ky., 1903-1905, pp. 25-32.]

The most important reform needed in our school system is the abolition of the district as the unit of school government, and the substitution therefore of the county. There are many other reforms that could be urged, but the county as the unit is the educational kingdom of heaven most to be desired at this time. When this is obtained, all the other good things will be added unto it. Other reforms, without this, would be like putting new cloth into old garments, or new wine into old bottles.

The school district is an artificial unit, measured by the length of a child's legs, and established for a single and special purpose. Consequently the schools of Kentucky are governmental outcasts, bearing no relation to the county government, which, for every other function is the only recognized unit. Therefore, instead of the uniform system enjoined by the Constitution, Kentucky has 8,330 independent schools, controlled by 24,990 trustees, with no unity of purpose and with no proper conception of the aim and scope of popular education. * * *

I have no words of abuse for school trustees. Many of them are honest and honorable men. But, in selecting 25,000 officers for any administrative function, it is folly to expect that many of them should have an intelligent conception of the duties to be performed. The duties of school officials are peculiar, and require men of culture, business acumen, high aims for human progress, and capacity for intelligent leadership. But the prevailing sentiment in a majority of districts is that anybody will do for school trustee. ***

Only a small number of the nearly 25,000 school officials whom our present system demands, desire to hold the positions. School trustee is one office in Kentucky that goes a-begging. Not onethird of the 8,330 districts ever hold an election. The best men will not offer for the positions, and the best men will not go to the

polls, unless there is a row in the district over a teacher or a school tax. Nor are good men to be censured for refusing to hold an office of this character. It is a disagreeable and pestiferous position, which brings the holder neither thanks nor emoluments. The school district is so small that few men care to incur the displeasure of their friends and neighbors in trying to perform the duties required of school trustees. The most necessary tax imposed by trustees upon the district is nearly always regarded as an imposition, and those who attempt to collect it as impostors. If a neighbor has a kinswoman who desires to keep school long enough to purchase a bridal outfit, and the trustees, out of regard for the best interests of the children, see fit to ignore her claims and employ a real teacher, there immediately spring up the two warring factions, and every educational interest in the district suffers. You would as well attempt to push a mule over a cliff as to try to get these men, who wished to do their duty, to serve a second term. It is an office that good men do not desire, and, when no elections are held, the county superintendent is almost subjected to the necessity of getting a search warrant to find men who will serve. I speak from an experience of twenty years.

There are some who cling to the district system because, they assert, it is the most democratic form of school government. On the contrary, it is the most autocratic. Because of an almost general failure to elect school trustees, the Superintendent must appoint a majority of them. When an election is held, the vote is, by no means, an indication of the popular will. I have known scores of elections where five votes were recorded, and many where the two officers and the candidate were the only voters. The school district is democracy gone to seed, a worthless inheritance from Massachusetts, from whose system our own was copied nearly seventy-five years ago. But Massachusetts, after a disastrous experience similar to our own, discarded their system many years ago, and one of her distinguished sons, Horace Mann, has declared that the school district is the "greatest blunder in the whole history of educational legislation.' There is neither wisdom nor democracy in it. * * *

As a taxing unit the school district is an egregious failure. Only about $30,000 are annually collected in 8,330 districts to defray the incidental expenses of the schools. This is an average of only $3.60 to the school. * * * Only about $75,000 are annually collected in Kentucky to extend the school term beyond six months. Nearly the whole of this sum is collected in small towns, such as Versailles, Lawrenceburg, Williamstown, and many others like them that comprise one district of the county. Very

little of it is expended on rural schools. In the entire Commonwealth, counting all of the unclassified towns and villages, there are only 675 schools whose terms extend over six months. Sixty-three of these are in Mason County, where, by a special Act of the Legislature, under the old Constitution, this county was made the taxing unit for school purposes. This leaves 7,667 schools in the state with only six months or less. Six months of learning, and six of forgetting! What a commentary on education in Kentucky under the district system! This is not because Kentuckians are penurious or that they are opposed to common schools; but because, under the district system, they behold such poor returns from the more than two millions that are annually expended on their schools by the Commonwealth that they do not care to waste more by local taxation. * * *

Now the question naturally arises in every inquiring mind; what is better for Kentucky than the district system?

The answer may be briefly given: Let the district as the unit of school government be abolished, and, instead, make the county the unit. And why would this be a better system for Kentucky? *** For the same reason that the town is best for Massachusetts, and the township for Indiana. The county is Kentucky's governmental unit. Since she became a state she has known no other, and by making the county the unit for popular education the rural schools will be elevated to the dignity and importance of other governmental functions. Then the rural schools, where two-thirds of Kentucky's children must be educated, will be closer to and more in harmony with the government from which they draw their sustenance, and by such a unification of educational interests in each county their affairs would be more intelligently and economically administered.***

By making the county the unit of school government, it is obvious that its citizens would manifest the same interest in the administration of its schools that is now had in other governmental functions. County pride and a natural desire to get the best for their money expended would insure this. For proof look at the cities of the Commonwealth. Here the city is the unit of school government. Jefferson County, with a school population of about 8,000, is administered by about 300 trustees, while Louisville, with a school population of nearly 60,000, has a school board composed of 14 representative citizens. There is, of course, no comparison between the schools of Louisville and Jefferson County. The same thing is true of Lexington, Newport, Covington, Owensboro and other cities. In the cities the best citizens are selected by the entire municipality to control the schools, and the whole city con