New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1857-02-11

that in the BeAr5 Of Edscssea i ses>e4 IA
trolling ard central power By which he ieca
Boards are kept n position and made 10 perform
their special functors in due and reasonable order.
But. Whether q regards Expenditures or the al
ninstrstion and Management Of the schools, this Is
q yery Great ins.ake. Our school system has, ia
fact. no such central and controlling po~er The
Board Of Education has the Management Of the
FREE Academy, tie Normal Schools and the Even
ing Schools. which are rather spPendases 70 the
system II an any but the control
which It exerc ses over the mass Of the schools whe
ther q. regards expenditures or management Is ne1t
to nothing. TIE very constitution OF this Board Of
Education is in fact such as to disable is kom scens
as central controlling power, or from exercising
tie limited authority in that respect with which
the law invests it, to any efectual purpose. Tnis
Board is composed of two Commissioners from
each Ward, one of whom goes out Of Office each
year. Bat these Comm asioners are not merely
members Of the Beard Of Education: they are
also ex- fhcio members Of the local School Boards
Of the Wards for which they are elected. They
sre thus invested with q double and coufc ing
duty-the duty of overlooking the whole sys-
tan, of checking the local Boards, and OF
guarding sgsinst undue local expense and
expansion, and the opposite duty of representing
the Wards, urging and pressing forward their par
ticulsr claims and looking to their special develop
msnt, independently Of the system as whole. It
is EASY to see which Of these conflicting duties
must, in ninety-rine cases out Of the hundred,
carly the dsy. It's rNrfecty natural that the local
oblic atons imposed upon the Commissioners should
quite oyershadow and swallow up their general
Obligation The two Commissioners from each
wsrd compose only twenty second part OF the
Board Of Educstion they compose fifth part OF
the local Boards to which they belong aud OF course
will very naturally feel greater responsibility for,
aid interest in the operations of those local Boards
Being chosen in and BY the Wards, it is naural
that they should put themselves forward az the
special champions of the interests of those Wsrds,
and that even when sitting as members OF the Board
of Education, they should consider themselves {"
charged not so much with the general interesss OF
the whole city and the whole school system as with
tie special interests of the particular Wards they
represent.
And what is thus naturally to be expected does
in fact really happen. The Board of Education has
totally failed to discharge those duties OF general
oversight and supervision, whether q, relates to the
expenditures of the local Boards, or their manage
ment of the schools, which the law imposes upon it,
This is fully admitted in the lately published address
Of President Green, rom which We have already
quoted. With every disposition to view the whole
system and ito administration with favorable eye
that gentleman is too we'll informed, too candid, and
too much friend to the cause of Education not to
point out this glaring defect, and to call loudly for
change. He seems to think that oil that is needed
is for the Board of Education TO exercise the con-
trolling authority already vested in it. We fear,
however, that there exist in the very constitution
of that Board nsuperable obstabes to any perma-
nent, efectual and steady exercise even OF such
legal authority as it has; while that authority, even
if Exercised or attempted to be, so long as the local
Boards retain their present extensive powers,
would fail, we fear, to give either unity or energy
to the system.