Charles City Republican intelligencer. [volume] (Charles City, Iowa) 1861-1864, 1862-01-16

The Board of Education.
The following Report bv the Com
mittce on Revision during the last
week of the Session of the Board of
Education was unavoidabIy omitted
from our last issue:
Mr.. HILDHErH, Chairman Of the Com
mittee on Revision, presented the fol-
lowing majority report:
To THE BOARD OF EnucArIoS A criti-
cal examination of the various Bills,
Petitions and Memorials referred to
your Committee has led to the fol-
lowing inquiries Shall we institute
the independent District system or re-
tain the present District Township
system? If the latter, are any mate.
rial changes necessary to perfect the
present law?
Your Committee arc Of opinion that
in many respects it would bc dcsira-
bic to return TO the Independent Dis
trict system. Such step would un-
doubtedly be highly gratifying to
large proportion of the people, while
it would meet with the decided oppo-
sition of probably an equal or greatar
number. That such an organization
would greatly simplify certain parts
of the machinery of the system and
bring the schools more directly under
the control Of each neighborhood, can
not be denied but whether it would
distribute the advantages and facili-
ties for instruction 50 equally and cqui-
tably among the people as the system
now in use, is extremely doubtful.
For example: under the independent
a wealthy District with
fifty pupils would probably receive a
sufficient amount of public money to
defray the expenses Of the school for
the full period required by law while
an adjoining District, containing q
sparse and somewhat INDECENT popu-
lation with only fifteen pupils, would
be compelled to raise large proper.
tion of the funds necessary to support
their school by direct tax. The pres
ent system e9ualizcs the burden and
aids the weaker snb-districts and
your Committee beg leave to submit
whether such equalization would not
be strictly equitable in the case just
cited, and whether the losses sustain
ed by returning to an independent
would not exceed the ad-
vantagcs to be derived therefrom.
Your Committee are, however, dis
posed to waive all personal preferences
upon the question, and, regardless of
any particular bias in certain locali-
ties on either side, to conform to the
wishes Of the people of the whole
State. To change school district
organization is u very serious matter.
and must, under the most favorable
circumstances, be attended with many
Inconvenience; and yet your Commit
tee would not hesitate to recommend
legislation thus radical had they any
satisfactory evidence that majority
Of the people desired it, or that the
welfare of our schools required it.
We are still laboring under the ef-
fects Of the change from the former to
the present system, and if we should
now return to the former organization
your Committee are utterly unable to
suggest any equitable plan for the adj
justment of the rights and liabilities
growing ont of such change In the
transition from the independent to the
township system the less was compre-
hcnded in the greater, but to reverse
the rule, as we must necessarily do ii
we now return to the former or sim
liar system, would render the case so
far as an equitable distribution of the
assets and liabilities is concerned, ex-
ccedingly complicated, and must re-
suit in interm;nablc confusion, neigh.
borhood quarrels and litigation.
In order to arrive fairly at the prac-
teal operation Of the two systems, it
is proposed to institute brief COM
parison between them. From Mr..
Benton's last report to the General
Assembly as Superintendent Of Pub.
lie Instruction, for the year ending
October 18th, 1858, it appears that
there were 1879 schools, 42,442 pu-
pills, $50 school houses valued at
$l44,97S 76, and that the average
length of time the schools were taught
was thirteen weeks. These figures
enable us to form pretty correct
idea of the growth of the school sys.
TEN during the first five years of its
existence under an independent sin.
gle district organization.
From Mr.. Fishers report for the
year ending October 3lst, 1851, it ap.
pears that there were 2,40S schools,
1860 pupils, 1856 school houses
valued at $57l,063 9l, and that the
average length of the schools was
fourteen weeks. These figures exhibit
the progress of the system during the
four concluding years of its existence
under an independent district organi
zation--a period of the most unrival.
led prosperity ever known 10 the his.
tory of the West.
From the report of the Secretary oi
the Board of Education now before us
for the year ending October 4th, 1861,
we learn that there arc $500 schools
lS3,3lS pupils, 3,479 school houses
valued at 81 ,2ss, 1897 Is, and that the
average length Of the schools was
seventeen weeks---showing an extra
ordinary expansion of the system du
ring the four years Of its existence
under q district township organiza
tion.
1t must also be remembered tina,
the four years last referred to, EN-
brace a period Of general depression
and financial embarrassment, which
has not had and probably never viii
have parallel in the history of ou
State. The Increase from October
1858, to October, 1857, in tho numbe