PUBLIC INSTRUCTION.

STATE SUPERINTENDENT.

An act passed March 30, 1854, created the office of State Superintendent of Public Instruction, to be filled by joint ballot of the Senate and Assembly, for a term of three years. He has general superintendence of the public schools; visits them; inquires into their management; advises and directs in regard to their course of instruction and discipline. He apportions and distributes the public moneys appropriated by the State for the support of schools; examines the supplementary apportionments made to all the districts by the School Commissioners, and sees to it that to each district is set apart its proportionate share, and that the same is expended by the trustees, and paid by the supervisors of the towns according to law. He gives advice and direction to school officers, teachers and inhabitants, upon all questions arising under the school laws. He establishes rules and regulations concerning appeals. He hears and decides all appeals, involving school controversies, that are brought before him, and his decision is final. He is charged with the general control and management of Teachers' Institutes in the various counties of the State; is authorized to employ teachers and lecturers for the Institutes, and to pay them, and to certify the accounts for expenses incurred by the School Commissioners in conducting the same. He is required by law to visit the Institutes, and to advise and direct concerning their proper management. He establishes rules and regulations concerning district school libraries. He makes appointments of State Pupils to the Institutions for the Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb and the Blind, upon the certificate of the proper local officers; and he visits and inquires into the condition and management of these Institutions. He apportions among the counties the number of pupils in the State Normal School to which each is entitled. He has charge of all the Indian Schools in the State; employs local agents to superintend them, and visits

them, and directs concerning the erection and repairs of their school-houses, and determines the branches of instruction to be pursued in the schools. He is, ex officio, a Regent of the University, and Chairman of the Committee on Teachers' Classes in the Academies, He is, also, ex officio, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Idiot Asylum and of the People's College, and Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Albany State Normal School. He is also charged with the general supervision of the State Normal Schools at Brockport, Buffalo, Cortland, Fredonia, Geneseo, Oswego and Potsdam. He receives and compiles the abstracts of the reports from all the school districts in the State, setting forth their condition and proceedings and the account of receipts and expenses for each year. He reports annually to the Legislature. Salary, $5,000. He has a deputy. He is also allowed clerks, whose aggregate salaries shall not exceed $9,000 in any one year.