of county, city, district and institutional officials. It has also attended to the editing of circulars, bulletins and reports issued by the State Department. The services rendered have justified the establishment of this division.

RURAL SCHOOLS

Through the division of rural schools the State Department of Education administers the appropriation made for the erection, repair and equipment of rural school buildings. During the past four years buildings have been erected, repaired and equipped with State aid as follows: New buildings, 587; old buildings repaired, 478; buildings equipped, 722; total cost, $4,509,925.00. The cost to the State for drawing plans, inspecting and supervising the construction of these buildings was $28,542.00, or less than one per cent.

The consolidation of schools and the transportation of pupils are promoted through this division. During the past four years 490 small schools have been combined into 206 consolidated schools, thereby increasing the enrollment of pupils in those schools from 13,946 to 32,728. The enrollment of pupils in high school grades in the communities affected has been increased from 748 to 5,936. The number of transportation vehicles employed is 285 and the number of pupils transported is 9,154. The cost of transportation in 1921 was $221,284.00. In the opinion of students of education consolidation and transportation are essential to the solution of our educational problem in the rural districts. Hence my administration has fostered the movement. Practically all of the progress made in consolidation and transportation has been made during the past four years.

ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS

What has been said of the rural schools division is applicable in large measure also to the division of elementary schools, since most rural schools are of elementary grades. The work of the elementary schools division is co-ordinated with and performed through the division of rural schools and the division of teacher training, certification and placement. Such co-ordination is specifically authorized by the Code.

SECONDARY EDUCATION

The most phenomenal growth in our school system has been that which has come in the development of our high schools. During the present quadrennium the enrollment in high schools has increased from 26,457 to 50,000, or approximately 90%. The increase for the preceding quadrennium was from 20,293 to 26,457, or approximately 30%.

During the last three years the number of accredited high schools has increased from 149 to 205, or 37%. The supervision and accreditment of high schools prior to the adoption of the Code in 1919 was not directly under the State Department of Education.

Through the division of secondary education the State Department has been able, in spite of the rapid and unprecedented growth in numbers, fairly well to standardize the work of our high schools. However, since the junior high school has been made a part of our educational system the work of the division of secondary education has been greatly augmented. As a result the present force in that division is greatly over-loaded and finds itself utterly unable to visit and inspect many of the schools seeking accreditment.

PHYSICAL EDUCATION

The world war and the draft opened the eyes of the American people to the lack of physical fitness in its young manhood. Almost one out of three of the young men called to the colors during that war proved to be physically unfit for military service, and hence physically unfit for the maximum efficiency in any line of work. As a result both State and nation are giving attention to physical and health education.

The Code provided for such a division in the State Department of Education and through that division a program of physical and health education has been projected. This program has been inaugurated in a majority of the counties and has the hearty endorsement and active support of the State Health Department. The adequate support of this program can but mean a more vigorous childhood, a healthier and stronger manhood and womanhood in the future.

VOCATIONAL EDUCATION

Reference to appropriations for vocational education and rehabilitation training has already been made in the statement relating to executive and business management, in which the appropriations for such purposes were given as amounting to $123,872.95 annually. As stated these appropriations are matched dollar for dollar by the Federal government.

Courses are given in agriculture, trades and industries, and home economics in the regular day schools, and at present there are in round numbers two hundred centers in which instruction is being given to more than five thousand pupils. In addition, part-time and evening classes have been organized in all three of the subjects and more than fifteen hundred men and women are receiving instruction in these classes.

In the rehabilitation service vocational training is given to men and women disabled in industry or otherwise. It is essential that such instruction be given such men and women before they have become burdens on society and have lost the all-important feeling of independence so necessary to every individual who is to play an active and successful part in the affairs of everyday life. The continuance of this service in increasing effectiveness is demanded by every humanitarian consideration.

EXCEPTIONAL EDUCATION

It has long been regarded a State duty to provide for the education of our children. The responsibility has been accepted with wider applications by each succeeding Legislature and at the session of 1915 this responsibility was extended so as to include the adult illiterate, who in many cases through no fault of his own had reached his majority without the ability to read and write. The last Legislature went farther than any preceding one and directed the State Board of Education to organize a division of exceptional education to promote the work of removing adult illiteracy. An annual appropriation of $12,500.00 was made and through its wise expenditure it has been possible materially to reduce the number of adult illiterates in Alabama. With an adequate appropriation adult illiteracy could be reduced to a minimum before the next Federal Census is taken. I recommend that the appropriation for the removal of illiteracy be increased to not less than $35,000.00 per annum.

SCHOOL AND COMMUNITY BETTERMENT

Through the creation of the division of school and community betterment in the Department of Education, Alabama put herself in line with one of the most important educational movements of the present day, the community-organization movement, the purpose of which is that the public school and the schoolhouse may be made more valuable to the communities in which the schools are located. This division has direct charge of school improvement, parent-teacher, and community organization work throughout the State. It encourages and co-operates with all agencies designed to foster the betterment of school and community interests.

There are at present 489 school welfare organizations and mothers' clubs with which this division is co-operating. More. than a million dollars is raised annually through community organizations of one kind or another. It is apparent, therefore, that the promotion and supervision of community activities along educational lines are proper functions of the State Department of Education.·

This division was provided for in the Code at the instance of the Alabama Federation of Women's Clubs and through its activities the public schools are coming rapidly to be the civic and social centers of the communities in which they are located. The results obtained more than justify the cost entailed.

NEGRO EDUCATION

Our people are coming more and more to realize that education is a natural right and should be a universal privilege. As a result of this widening conception wherever there is a colored population in our State there is manifest an increased interest in providing for its education. This has been due to several reasons, one of which is economic, it being recognized by the dominant race that in order to secure and retain efficient workers for agriculture and industry in any community it is necessary to provide more adequate educational facilities for their children. Another and higher reason has been the growing conviction on the part of the leading men and women of the South that simple justice and the preservation of the highest interests of this section demand that the negro be given educational opportunities commensurate with his ability to profit by and utilize them in the performance of his duties as a citizen.

With both of these forces at work it has been possible during the past four years to make material progress in negro education, especially along vocational, industrial and moral lines. It is believed that the education provided for the negro should be dominantly industrial and moral rather than dominantly cultural and professional.

In the promotion of negro education the State Board of Education has had the co-operation of the General Education Board, the John F. Slater Fund, the Julius Rosenwald Fund, the Jeanes Fund, and the Phelps-Stokes Fund, for which co-operation all concerned are duly grateful.

REVOLVING FUND

Attention is called to the revolving fund, the reasons for its establishment and the conditions rendering necessary its continuance and augmentation. The amount of taxable property in the several counties varies widely. In a county like Jefferson or Montgomery the three-mill school tax, county and district, together with the State per capita apportionment, supplies funds sufficient to maintain free schools for the white children for terms of nine months and in the former almost similar terms for the negroes; whereas the same taxation in such counties as Cleburne or Lawrence provides school terms of less than five months. Thirty-seven counties have terms shorter than six months.

Facts similar to these caused the Legislature of 1919 to provide a revolving fund of $100,000.00 annually to be used by the State Board of Education for lengthening terms and otherwise bettering conditions in rural schools, and for worthy purposes for which no adequate provision had been made. During the past year forty-six counties have participated in the distribution of this fund. However, it would require an equalizing fund of at least a million dollars to provide a term of seven months for all of the white schools. An average term of nine months is regarded as the national standard. Alabama should be satisfied with nothing less for her children. I recommend a revolving fund of not less than $300,000.00.

What have we that may be thought of as having the highest excellence in the matter of constituting a satisfactory system for the education of our children?

1. We have a code of laws providing the machinery for the administration and supervision of the schools second to none in the nation. This is conceded by the educational experts of the country.

2. We have a county unit of school administration approved by educators generally and by students of economy as furnishing the only satisfactory way of bringing the management of the schools close to the people and yet providing units large enough for taxation, support and professional leadership, all of which are essential if there is to be a continuous policy in educational matters.

3. We have a State Board of Education which functions through the State Department of Education, in the organization of which every element of educational service has a representative responsible through the Department to the State Board for promoting that phase of our educational program with which he is specifically charged. The service of this Department is not that of a bureau or agency separate and apart from the actual work of the schools. Each member of the staff has a definite duty to perform, assists and has a part in the actual work of the schools, comes into contact with and learns first-hand the various needs, and out of this knowledge uses every means to secure the greatest returns possible to the taxpayers for expenditures made. In other words, the State Department has ceased to be merely an old-time auditing department and has become a new-time administrative and supervisory department.

4. We have a system of teacher-training in our normal schools for elementary and junior high school teachers second to none. In spite of the limited appropriations, less than half of the average for the nation, these institutions are rendering to the taxpayers a service in the preparation of teachers out of all propor