Mineral Point tribune. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1854-1858, 1856-04-08
REPORT
Of the Superintendent of Public instruction.


the State Superintendent of Public instruction
of the State of Wisconsin, and shall complete
it in future numbers, excepting the Appoint
ment to the several Towns and Cities"
| 1t is made by law the duty of the Superin-
tendent of Public destruction TO prepare in
each year report, to be submitted to the Leg
islature, bearing date the last day of Decem-
her IN each year, containing
81. An abstract of all the common school re-
i ports received by him from the several clerks
OF the county boards of supervisors
"2 statement of the condition Of the com
mon schools in this State.
50. Estimates and accounts of expenditures
of the school moneys.
a. Plans for the improvement and manage
rnent OF the common school ftnd, and for the
organization of the ecommon schools
/ "5. All such matters relating to lis Office and
the common schools of the State, as he shall
deem exPedient to communicate"
The required abstract of county returns viii
be found at the close of this report
The number of counties in this State is fifty.
From the abstract of the county reports, we
learn that in the forty-five organized counties
S-A !,
four hundred and sixty EIGHT towns and cities.
containing three thousand five hundred and
eighty-four districts and Joint districts OF
this number Of whole and joint districts 1921
have reported to the town superintendents as
required by law.-Thc number of districts re-
ported last year is 2226, showing an increase
OF 1885 whole and joint districts The increase
is in part the result Of divisions of old districts,
but is mainly attributable to the increase of
populotion in State and the settlement Of
new territory. Still, it is a matter of regret
that the carving up of large districts into small
ones is quite common, introducing disscnsion,
poor schools, and many and great hintlerances
in the way of all educational progress and pres
Perity To the fancied benefit of being near a
school house, very important considerations are
often sacrificed. The fact is overlooked that
children require, for the development Of a
healthy organization, the daily exercise equiv
elent to one or two miles travel In pleasant
weather walk of two or even three miles is no
hardship to them. 1t has been observed, and
the testimony of teachers confirms the observa-
ton, that as general rule, those children who
live fartherest from the school house are most
punctual in their daily attendance and make
the greatest progress in their studies"
Whole number of children in the State,
Sept. J. 1856, between the ages Of four
and twenty was ls6 0s5
No. In the Reported for the year 1854, I55I25
Increase in the State for the year 1855, 80 900
No. ofehildren who have attended school
during the year ending Sep. l. 1855, l22 452
OF these, between the ages of and 20, l19,Gs7
No. reported last year and under
20 as ATTENDING school, Io1 $50
Increase of attendance for the year. lSl07
Received from various sources for the
year 1855, for school purposes S2CI 764 o3
of this, there expended, for the
same purposes, 25o,o75 20
As follows
For teachers wages, so16542 -
For libraries, 4,7l 2I
For other purposes, 2s 79I ~
Amount unex pended, Il 6ss ;l3
Excess of money received and exren-
ded for school purposes over amount
in 1854 22,eI7 40
Excess for teachers wages, 53.o57 os
These figures indicate healthy educational
progress in our State, as compared with those of
former years. STILL with our great and general
prosperity, they are scarcely what we had
right reasonably to expect. We not, how
ever, to estimate the degree of interest, and the
measure of improvement in all localities by the
figures here given.-While in many places there
has been little no improvement on the pre-
vious year, in others the condition of things has
been materially changed for the better far
larger amounts have been raised for school rur-
poses, and the wages of teachers greatly in
creased.
Tie School Fiad-Hs Jrproductive and Prodstc-
the Cdpitdt-Inconac- appointment de-,
The capital of the School Fund consists Of
lst. Unproductive Property, being 35,951 acres
of land, located in the several counties as fol-
lows