REPORT. OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS. OFFICE OF SUPERINTENDENT OF COMMON SCHOOLS, Mo., To the General Assembly of the State of Missouri: By the 23d section of the 1st article of "An act to provide for the organization, support and government of Common Schools in the State of Missouri," approved Dec. 12, 1855, I am required to prepare and submit to the Legislature, at each regular session, a report showing, 1st. The amount of moneys apportioned in each of the two preceding years, and how much to each county. 2d. A statement of the condition of the Common Schools of the State. 3d. All such matters relating to my office, and to Common Schools, as I shall deem expedient to communicate. In obedience to these several requirements, I have the honor to submit the following report: By reference to communications heretofore made from this office, it will be seen that many of the counties had failed to organize under our school law, and consequently made no report to this office, thereby rendering any statistical information, in relation to the subject of education in our State, meager and imperfect; but for the last year or two the people have taken an unusual interest in the subject of popular education, and particularly in our Common School system, and I now have the pleasure of exhibiting, for the first time, an organization and report from every county in the State. It is true that the returns from some of the counties are still not as full as is desirable, yet they are generally sufficiently explicit to furnish such information as the Legislature may need for its future supervision of this branch of the political economy of the State. Annexed to this report will be found tabular statements, marked 'A' and 'B,' exhibiting in detail the apportionment of State school moneys for the years 1857 and 1858, the number of children in each county, the amount apportioned to each, and the ratio upon which each apportionment was made. In 1857 the amount apportioned was $235,811 94; number of children between 5 and 20 years of age was 302,323; ratio, 78 cents; leaving in the Treasury a balance of $2,513 47. In 1858 the amount apportioned to 341,121 children of the same age was $244,993 54, the ratio being 70 cents, leaving a balance in the Treasury of $3,213 93. The statements hereto annexed, marked 'C' and 'D,' have been prepared with much care, and exhibit the number of school-districts, school-houses, colleges, academies, male and female teachers, children between 5 and 20 years of age, children taught during the year, the amount paid teachers, the portion derived from the State school fund, as also that derived from Township funds, the amount raised by taxation and otherwise to build and repair school-houses, and the amount of unsold school lands, with its estimated value per acre. Of the amount apportioned in 1857, there was derived from the State revenue (twenty-five per cent. thereof being set apart for this purpose) the sum of one hundred and forty-three thousand four hundred and eighty-eight dollars and thirty-eight cents; from bank dividends for the year ending 31st December, 1856, ninety-nine thousand three hundred and three dollars and seventy-three cents, which, with a remainder of ten dollars and ten cents in the Treasury, constituted the sum apportioned in that year. From In the year 1858 there was in the Treasury, subject to apportionment, a balance of $2,513 47; also the bank dividend for the year ending Dec 31st, 1857, eighty thousand three hundred and fifty-four dollars and thirty-five cents, and twenty-five per cent. of the State revenue for the preceding year, one hundred and sixty-five thousand six hundred and twenty-six dollars and seventy-five cents; making an aggregate of two hundred and forty-eight thousand four hundred and ninety-four dollars and fifty-seven cents. this sum there was first deducted six thousand four hundred and ninety-five dollars and ninety-four cents paid to the counties of Barry, Nodaway, Shannon, Stoddard, Newton, Ripley, and New Madrid, by virtue of special acts of the adjourned session of the last General Assembly, leaving the net amount of two hundred and forty-one thousand nine hundred and ninety-eight dollars and sixty-three cents, subject to apportionment, which said sum was apportioned to three hundred and forty-one thousand one hundred and twenty-one children, the number reported from the different counties of the State, as appears from the reports to this office for the year 1857, on a ratio of seventy cents to each child; leaving in the Treasury a balance of three thousand two hundred and thirteen dollars and ninety-three cents. There will also be found appended to this report, a comparative table marked E,' containing such school statistics as are on file in this office, for the years 1854, 1855, 1856, 1857, and the amount of money apportioned in 1858, exhibiting the progress made in the administration of the school law, and the increasing interest and diligence of its ministerial officers and of the people. To those who have doubted the success of an old system when applied to so new a community as ours, and who favor the repeal of the law devoting twenty five per cent. of the State revenue to the education of the children of the State, on the ground that direct taxation for educational purposes, will create a more active interest on the part of those taxed, as to the disposition of the fund so raised, I present this table with great satisfaction. I am confident that it only requires time for the masses to properly comprehend and appreciate the system, that the most beneficent and promising results may follow. Reference to the table will show an increase of one hundred and thirty eight thousand five hundred children in three years, claiming their share of the fund to be apportioned and its consequent blessings. So large an increase can only find its solution in the grateful favor and practical regard with which the yeomanry of the land receive the fatherly efforts of the State, and a conviction that "knowledge is power." It is a gratifying fact that the corresponding increase in the revenue has prevented any diminution in the per capita apportionment. The year 1857 alone, presents an increase of seven hundred and eighty-two org school districts. The table also shows an increase, in three years, o thousand eight hundred and thirty-six school houses. These buildings, it. not be improper to remind you, are all erected at the expense of the distri in which they are situated, furnishing, together with other matters inferable from the table, abundant and substantial evidence of the growing success of the system. It will also be seen, that notwithstanding the severe money crisis which has lately swept over our State, there was raised, by district taxation and individual contributions, in the year 1857, the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand two hundred and thirty-six dollars, for the purpose of erecting and repairing school-houses. I am warranted by the experience of other States during a long series of years, under a school law almost identical with our own, in saying that a prompt, complete and understanding administration of all its parts, will insure the attainment of the object of all legislation in our country on this subject, viz: a provision of the means for the education, enlightenment and consequent moral elevation and happiness of those on whom depend our domestic advancement, commercial prosperity, and the perpetuity of our institutions. Such an administration of the law, in our State, is not far from the day of its realization. Educational machinery not contemplated by the school law, but auxiliary to it, has been put into operation in a large number of the counties, yielding rich results. More extended efforts in the same direction are confidently looked for during the coming year. Of the three hundred and forty-one thousand children reported to this office, as entitled to a distributive share of the State school moneys, one hundred and forty-one thousand three hundred and twenty-eight are reported as attending the district common schools. I think it a reasonable calculation. that as many more are educated at private schools and academies. Of the remaining number between five and twenty years of age, (about fifty-eight thousand) the males are most probably engaged in the active duties of life, and have received from the common schools of the State, all and the only tuition upon which they intend to rely for the discharge of their duties as citizens. This fact (which the experience of the past and the laws of human life argue will be a continuing fact) renders it highly important that our educational system should be fostered with care, cautiously changed and prudently perfected, that the whole mass of the people who are engaged in rendering it an honor to its framers, may have all the advantages of full comprehension, familiarity and thorough adaptation. Should the Legislature deem it prudent to require all the incorporated schools and colleges, together with the private schools, to report to this office the whole number of their pupils, it would enable the Superintendent to furnish a very reliable and interesting statement of the actual condition of education in the State. The Auditor of Public Accounts having certified to the Commissioners of the State School Fund, that there had accumulated in the Treasury seventeen thousand dollars, arising from the sale of Saline Lands, it became the duty of said Commissioners, under the 14th section of the 1st article of our school law, to invest the same in stock, to be held in trust for the State School Fund. The bonds of the State of Missouri were then selling at a discount of fifteen per cent. This was thought by the Commissioners to be the most advantageous investment which then presented itself. The Auditor was directed to purchase State bonds with the amount on hand, which was accordingly done, by the purchase of twenty bonds of the State of Missouri, bearing six per cent. interest, which bonds have been deposited in the Treasurer's office for safe keeping. The capital of the State School Fund has thus been increased twenty thousand dollars, and stands thus: Twenty State bonds, $1,000 each........ Present capital stock of the State School Fund ..... ...$ 20,000 00 ....575,667 96 $595,667 96 Growing out of the fund invested in the Bank of the State of Missouri, there is a net profit accruing to the State School Fund of eighty-six thousand three hundred and fifty dollars and fifteen cents, and it is a matter of doubt whether this amount is subject to distribution at the next annual apportionment, or whether it shall remain as a part of the permanent fund. The 3d section of article 1 of our school law declares that "the interest, dividends, proceeds and profits of such School Fund shall be denominated 'State School Moneys,' and shall be distributed annually for the support of common schools throughout the State." Under this section of the law I shall consider it my duty to include this amount with the moneys to be apportioned in May next, unless otherwise directed by the Legislature. It is a matter of grave consideration whether the future welfare of our common schools does not demand that it should form a part of the School Fund, thereby increasing the capital stock of said fund, and consequently, the amount of the annual apportionments. I recommend that this course be adopted, and that the Auditor be required to invest the same in the stock of the Bank of the State of Missouri. It is a well established maxim of political economy, that every State should educate its own children, or, at least, see that they are educated. This is on the same principle that every government is expected to establish municipal regulations for the protection of property, and the punishment of crime. They both tend to the same point, for a good school-house, well occupied, is worth a hundred jails, as a preventive of vice and wickedness. The legislation of our State hitherto has acknowledged and acted upon the above principle. Township, County and State School Funds have been set apart and secured to the people, with a munificence and far-seeing patriotism worthy the legislators of a great and growing State. This is as it should be; for no commonwealth of the great American Republic should have more watchful care bestowed upon its educational interests than Missouri. Our central position is soon to make our State the "highway of nations." Already our commercial metropolis has become the half-way house between the ends of the earth; and the arms of our commerce are stretched out to the shores of the Atlantic and the gold fields of the Pacific. We have a territory sufficient to encircle within its boundaries, England, with all her wealth and power; washed and intersected by rivers whose fountains are scattered over half a continent; possessing mineral wealth enough to supply the demands of an empire, and a soil whose teeming products could feed a starving world. This territory is already peopled by a million of inhabitants, drawn together from every State of the Union, and every quarter of the globe. With ordinary prosperity, a few generations will see the population doubled, and even quadrupled. It is evident then, that too much cannot be done to secure to this great empire of mind a sure foundation of virtue and intelligence-the only safeguards from anarchy and despotism. A question here forces itself upon our consideration: are the edu |