they had ceased after the School of Instruction for school officers in that particular county. In these cases the officers were highly pleased with the results achieved in these meetings, and were anxious that others should be held in the near future.

The violations of the law most frequently found and which appear to have been almost universal in the districts examined were the purchasing of school, building, and other supplies from the officers of the districts by the board and the hiring of school officers for miscellaneous work connected with the school, for which they were paid by the day.

Shortages were discovered in 18 districts ranging from a few dollars to over $5000, but in each case these amounts were replaced by either the treasurer or his bondsman without the loss of a cent to the district concerned. On the other hand district treasurers who have been charged with the unlawful use of school funds have, asked to have their books audited, and a thorough examination of their books and records has resulted in clearing them of the charges. In several cases interest received on school funds and misappropriated by the treasurer has been recovered, and the beneficial effect of this fact upon the treasurers of one county was shown by the fact that other treasurers of the same county afterward went to the county commissioner and voluntarily acknowledged that they had misappropriated interest on school funds, stated the amount, and immediately deposited the same to the credit of the district.

Another violation of the law which was found in several districts was the loaning of school funds to private individuals on notes and mortgages. This was done in some instances by the district in annual meetings, in others by the district board, and in still others by the treasurer himself. All such loans with accrued interest were immediately recalled and the funds replaced.

Numerous disputes between districts have been settled and districts which have through improper use of the funds on hand been deprived of their apportionment of the primary school fund have had their books audited, their balance on hand properly divided into the several funds, and the reports corrected so that in the future they will receive their share of the primary apportionment.

Investigation has shown that in too many cases the district treasurer depends upon the district director to keep the accounts of the district, and that he does not properly protect himself by keeping a correct and complete account of all moneys received and paid out by himself. The records of the treasurer should be uniform with those of the director, so that they may be easily compared.

3. Waste in Education

[Supt. Francis G. Blair, in 28th Bien. Rept. Supt. Publ. Instr., Illinois, 1908-1910, pp. 503-505.]

Another source of waste in the educational system is in the manner of its administration. The school system of Illinois consists of the taxable property of the tax payers, of the 45,000 school officers elected or appointed by the people to represent them, of the 28,000 teachers who stand in the school rooms day after day and administer to the wants of the children, of the thousands of principals and superintendents in the cities and high schools, of 102 county superintendents, and of a State Superintendent of Public Instruction. This in a rough, general way is the administrative side of the public school system. It is easy to see that in such a vast system, expending $32,000,000 annually for its maintenance, and administered by such a great army of officers there are endless opportunities for leakage and waste. The duplication of officers, the overlapping of authority, the conflict of duties and functions, the opportunities for neglect of duty and of responsibility, all these show us readily that here is a phase of the management of the common schools which needs the careful attention of every believer in the system and of those who make the laws which govern it.

The Educational Commission is recommending several measures which have to do with the administrative side of the public school system. One of these is a State Board of Education, which, in connection with the State Superintendent of Public Instruction, shall in a certain sense have a large supervisory function over the entire system of the State. It is difficult to enter into such detail as would be necessary to set forth the need of such a board. It is claimed, however, for it, that such a board made up of distinguished citizens of the State, interested in the economic administration of this great school force, interested in providing for the children of the State the largest school opportunity at the least cost to the State, would be a movement in the direction of preventing waste in the common school system. The commission is convinced that one of the best means of preventing waste is to strengthen the office of city superintendent and county superintendent. In every great business enterprise it has been discovered that a superintendent who directs the activities of the workmen, who, through advice and counsel, helps them to work in harmony rather than antagonistic to each other, is one of the most valuable officials in the entire system. So in the public school

system, it is believed that the city and county superintendents are officers who should serve the large purposes of avoiding overlapping and duplication in school work and school facilities, who can prevent conflict and waste in the instruction and who can so organize and direct the activities of the school under their charge as to bring forth the maximum of efficiency with a minimum of cost to the community. The commission is recommending a bill providing that after a year or two of trial the city superintendent shall be elected for a term of four years. This will give him an opportunity to mature his policies and to effect the desirable ends which we have suggested briefly. Perhaps the most important officer in the public school system is the county superintendent. The 10,613 single-room schools and the small village and town schools of the State are dependent upon the county superintendent for their success. It is he who, through his counsel, through his plans, through his course of study, through his work with the teachers, secures efficiency, avoids waste, and insures a reasonable degree of success in these schools. The commission is recommending a reclassification of the counties of the State, a new scale of salaries, with a provision for the employment of assistants wherever needed to strengthen the influence of the county superintendent. Another administrative reform which is offered respects these single-room schools. The Educational Commission is thoroughly convinced that in a great agricultural State like Illinois the singleroom school was a necessity from the beginning and will continue to be a necessity so long as such a large part of the State is given over to agricultural pursuits. But it cannot close its eyes to the fact that many of these little schools were established without the most careful consideration and that many of them which were largely attended when they were first established have reached such a low attendance as to make their continuance a financial and educational waste. From 1901-1907 the enrollment in the ungraded schools of Illinois decreased to the extent of 47,000. It is easy to understand the meaning of this. The movement from the agricultural regions to the towns and the cities is continuing and many of these little schools which, in the past, had a sufficient attendance to warrant their continuance can no longer be justified on the grounds of economy or of educational need. Up to my office within the last year came a letter containing this sort of a question. It was written by a director in whose home the teacher was boarding. He said we have just two pupils enrolled in our school. One of them has been sick for a month and the other does not attend regularly. The teacher wants to know whether, in order to draw her daily wage, she must go to the school each morning at nine

o'clock, even though she knows that neither one will be present, and if she goes at nine in the morning, must she go back at one in the afternoon to see whether either one has come, in order to draw her wages. Of course this is an unusual and extreme case, the only one I know of, but it suggests one of the large leaks in the common school system of Illinois, an expenditure of money that cannot be justified upon any ground of educational need or expediency. We have over a hundred schools in Illinois with a smaller enrollment than five. I do not believe that the continuance of these schools can be justified upon any grounds. In order to avoid the waste that comes from the constant depletion of attendance upon these single-room schools the Educational Commission is recommending a bill which is called the township enabling act, providing a means whereby the rural schools of a township may unite the control and management of these schools under one board of directors. There are over 500 townships in Illinois composed wholly of rural schools. It is believed that a great financial saving would be effected and that a great increase in the efficiency of the instruction brought about by an arrangement which would place these several schools under the control of one board which should be elected by the people of these several districts. The financial side of it appeals to me strongly. It is possible in a township to have a great deal of the property in the form of railroads or other large corporations centered in one or two of the districts, where they are taxed to support the schools of those districts, while the remaining portions of the township receive no benefit whatever from the presence of these corporations. I am informed by the county superintendent of Lawrence county that in one township there is a district in which the oil companies have erected all their oil tanks, thus accumulating a great amount of taxable property within one district. There are five other school districts within the township. The one in which these oil tanks have been placed levied last year a tax of one-fifteenth of one per cent and raised $2,500, more than twice as much as was needed to run the schools of that district, but not another one of the districts in the township got any benefit whatever from the presence of these oil tanks in the township. I believe that there is a good argument in favor of this equalization of taxes, but I know that Superintendent Conn, of McHenry county, has presented this argument to you as he has prepared the best argument on that side of the question which has been offered in the State of Illinois. In the purchasing of the supplies for the several schools, employing the teachers, keeping the buildings in repair, supplying them with proper books and apparatus, I believe that this central board would administer the several schools of the

township with greater economy and with greater efficiency than when they are managed by these separate boards of directors. If a board of directors were placed in charge of several rural schools of the township and it was discovered that one of these schools had fallen below five in attendance, this central board could do as boards in the cities do, say to the parents of these children: "This school has ceased to be profitable and we cannot afford to employ a separate teacher for this school. We shall have to ask your children to go to a certain other school within the township. We shall not discontinue the school, but we shall close it up until we are assured that there are enough children to attend it to make it worth while from the standpoint of economy and education to open up the school again." It seems to me that this township enabling act can be made a large influence in stopping the waste in our rural schools.

4. A Larger Unit of School Organization

[Supt. Fairchild, in 18th Bien. Rept. Supt. Publ. Instr., Kas., 19111912, pp. 19-21.]

The present unit of school administration is the district, of which in this state there are 8718. This means that, with the 14,000 teachers, we have an army of between 25,000 and 30,000 school officers to administer the public-school affairs. The cost of the maintenance of our schools amounts annually to more than eleven million dollars.

Viewed as a business proposition, the financial management of our schools ranks with the big enterprises of the day in importance. In no other big business do we find such lack of organization prevailing with respect to the collection and disbursement of funds. It is evident that the district system is out of touch with modern business methods. Not only does the present system insure unnecessary extravagance and actual waste of funds, but it is ineffective in a still more important detail. Because of this vast army of school officials, selected often at random and without regard to special fitness for the administration of school affairs, there is a complete lack of coördination and unity of effort. There can be no solidarity of purpose nor unity of action under such a system.

Many weaknesses that inhere in our rural schools of to-day are due to the district system. The consensus of opinion, as expressed by students of this important subject, is that the ideal school unit of organization is the county, that the next best is that of the township; while the poorest, the least effective, is the district.

In the county system, which prevails in several states of this