Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1913-03-28
VERMONT SCHOOLS
Powers and Responsibilities of
state Educational Board.

In an address on vermont Prob
lens" at public meeting at Lyndon
vile Thursday evening, March 20
President John M. Thomas of Middle
bury college explained the work of the
new State Board of Education. Presi-
dent Thomas address in part is as fol
lows:
"Vermont is in the midst of an edu-
cational revival. All over the state
communities and officials are alert as
never before in the study of education
al questions and in active effort for the
improvement of all grades of schools.
A sense of sin is always a preliminary
in any revival, and one of the manifes-
tations of Vermont's awakening is edu-
cational matters is a widespread and
earnest dissatisfaction with certain fea-
lures of our school administration and
with the results attained This feeling
is right and healthful, and its further
increase will be the beginning of better
conditions. Particularly must the re-
sponsibilty of the state as a whole for
the schools in the small and thinly popu-
lated towns be acknowledged, and
measures for their relief must be de-
vised 1t is the boy in the little back
district who today is not getting a fair
chance. His teacher is the poorest
paid and is likely to be the least trained,
his school house is the barest and least
attractive, his books are the fewest, his
school year is the shortest. Yet that
boy becomes a citizen of the state, not
merely of the town which schooled
him, and he affects for good or i'll the
name and worth of the state as much
as boy brought up in Burlington or
Rutland.
"The interest of the whole state in
every child in the state has been recog-
nized as never before in Vermont in
the largely increased powers of the
board of education. Some of our peo-
pie seem to think that this board is
something new and that its creation
was piece of personal politics. | dc
not so understand it. A state board
of education was created in 1908 anC
has served continuously since. That
board succeeded the normal school
commissioners, and their powers were
limited largely to control of the normal
schools. The new board called sim
ply the "board of education lis con-
stituted somewhat differently, being
composed of five members instead of
three and with no eX-officio members,
but the chief difference is the enlarge
ment of its powers. Whereas the for
mer board controlled the normal
schools only, the new board has TO dc
with the high schools and academies,
the school unions and superintendents
and through the powers of appointing
the state superintendent and also in
! spectors and visitors, with the schools
in every last hamlet in the state.
! They are authorized to determine the
classification and standard of high
schools and to appoint state inspec-
tor to see that their standards are en-.
]
laws ever put upon the statute books
| of Vermont was the law securing to
every qualified student free tuition in
first class high school, whether his
town supports high school or not. But
fear many of these pupils have been
sadly deceived through the approval
as first class of high schools, which
were not really such. The state has
had no officer to visit the high schools,
and for approval as first class a school
had only to outline on paper foul
years course and mail it to Mont
pelier. So the boys and girls have
spent four of the best years of theil
life, Travelled long distances, and ac