The Virginia enterprise. [volume] (Virginia, St. Louis County, Minn.) 1893-19??, 1905-06-09
OUR PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM
OFFERS EXCEPTIONAL ADvAN-
TAGEs TO THE WORLD.
1ts Permanent School Fund Is Now
the Largest Of any Northern
e.. - State. It will Soon DO
$75, 200, 600. ~:

$SOsOOO,OOO. IS
State Capitol, St. Paul, Mimi
Minnesota offers the widest oppor-
tunities in .Ae line of public educa-
ton. Its permanent school fund is
larger than any other northern state,
This now amounts to sixteen million
dollars, and since by a wise provision,
of legislation only the interest of it
can be used, the state auditor esti-
mates it will eventually approximate
seventy-fve million dollars. There is
no section of the state so remote as
not to be reached by the public
school. The first concern of the set,
tier, even before he has fully estab-
ished his own home, is to make pro-
vision for school.
In their organization and govern
ment, districts are known as common,
independent and special. With re-
spect to the work done, we speak OF
the schools as common, semi-graded,
graded, and high. Attendance in the
public schools is free to all pupils
residing within the district. Until
within a few recent years the plan
generally followed was to subdivide
the districts in the country as to re-
duce the distance between the home
and the school. During the last six
years an opposite policy has been
carried out in many communities
that of uniting several districts, thus
forming larger school, with a bet
ter building, a longer term, more
thorough instruction, and free trans
portation of the pupils.
Free education is afforded every
child in Minnesota, and more than
two-thirds of the districts also fur
nish free text books. Last year there
were 4,2S9 libraries in connection
with this number of public schools,
more than half of them in the rural
or common school districts. Half the
cost of establishing and maintaining
these libraries is met by the state.
How Schools Are Supported.
The public schools are supported
partly through local taxation, and
partly by indirect state aid through
the one-mill state tax and the in
come arising out of the permanent
SCHOOL fund. In addition, special
state aid is granted: $1,000 to high
schools, $3.50 to graded schools, $3.50
to semi-graded, and 1928. and $50 re-
spectively to the two classes of rural
schools. The high and graded
schools are under the supervision Of
the state high school board, which
fixes the standard such schools must
reach before they receive the special
state aid. There are now las graded
schools in the smaller towns and
villages. These schools maintain
from four to six departments, are in
session nine months, and give in.
struction in all the branches lead
ing up to high school work. The
40 high schools of the state offer
free instruction to any pupil in Min
nesota, this being one of the few
states giving entirely free high school
tuition. ~ Semi-graded and rural
schools are supervised by the county
superintendent. He recommends to
the superintendent of public instruc-
ton such schools as he considers en-
titled to receive the special state aid.
This state encouragement of public
education, particularly of schools in
the rural districts, has been the
means of greatly improving their eff
cheney. Better buildings are provid-
ed, terms are heightened, higher sal
aries are pad to teachers, and the
schools have altogether reached
more definite and satisfactory stand
ard.
TIL five state normal schools, at
Winona, Mankato, St. Cloud, Moor
head and Duluth, train teachers for
public school work. Collectively,
they enroll over 1900 in their nor
NAL training departments. Each
school also maintains a model train
ing department in which those in at
tendance are taught and are instruct
ed in the proper methods of teaching.
Tuition at the normal schools is free,
the obligation being that the student,
after graduation, shall give at least
two years. time to public school work
in the state; and the schools are
represented by their students and
graduates in the rural and graded
schools of every county in Mime
sofa.
Splendid State University.
The public school system finds it's
highest development in its splendid
state university. Now only is the
attendance equal to that of any one
of the four or five largest UNIVERSE
ties in the country, but, in it's variety
of courses of study, in it's colleges
of law, medicine, engineering and
agriculture, in the full and thorough
equipment of every department., in
the efficient service rendered by it's
instructors, and in the high stand
ard of administration maintained by
it's venerable president, Cyrus North
rop, it takes rank with the foremost
institutions Of higher learning in
America. The school of agriculture
is in many respects the best organ
Ned school of this nature in the
Union. It offers thorough, practical
instruction for the boys and girls
from the farm, its main object be-
ing to so educate them that they
can return to their home and take up
scientifically dairying, the care, feed
ing and breeding of stock, the cult
walton of grains and vegetables, tree
planting and growing, preservation
OF the soil, carpentry and black
smithing. # =
And it is not alone in its public
school system, closely articulated,
and beginning with rural school and
ending with the state university, that
Minnesota exce1s. 1t has also nupaer-