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is obvious that some embarrassment may be experienced in regard to the annual revenue arising from that item of the fund; and it would also be necessary to provide for the re-investment of the avails of the stock.

The attention of the Legislature is respectfully called to the suggestion in the last annual report, in regard to authorising the Commissioners of the Canal Fund, wheneverloans are to be made, to issue five per cent stock at par, to take up the amount of the school fund capital in the treasury at the time of issuing the stock. A law of this character was passed in 1829, (chap. 325) in relation to the stock of the Cayuga and Seneca canal. A similar law is recommended in relation to the stock to be issued for the canals now making. There is 150,000 dollars of stock yet to be issued for the Chemung canal, and the Commissioners of the Canal Fund might be authorised to use the 83,000 dollars of school fund money now in the treasury, and issue five per cent stock at par for the use of the school fund.

If this deprives the local fund of the benefit which might be obtained by a sale of the stock in market, yet as the premium is paid upon the credit of the state, and as every section will have to contribute to sustain this credit, it is entirely just that this premium should be shared by the whole state; which will be the case if it is yielded to the common schools.

IV. The organization of the Common Schools.

The best proof of the excellence of the organization of our common school system, is found in the fact, that the trustees of 8,630 districts have made reports to the Commissioners of Common Schools; showing that in each of those districts a school has been taught for at least three months during the year, by a teacher to whose qualifications the Inspectors have certified; and furnishing also a census of the number as well of resident children, as of those instructed; and rendering an account for the public money received by their district the preceding year. That abstracts of these reports of the trustees, have been niade out and transmitted to the county clerks, by the Commissioners of 785 towns and wards; and that copies of these reports of the Commissioners of Schools, under the certificate and seal of the county clerks, have been transmitted to the Superintendent, embracing returns from every town and ward in the state. The school money arising from [A. No. 15.]

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the state fund, is paid by the Comptroller, on or after the first o February, to the treasurers of 55 counties, and by these officers is distributed to the commissioners of 785 towns and wards, according to the apportionment furnished to the treasurer by the Superintendent; and by the town commissioners the money is apportioned according to the children over 5 and under 16, and paid to the trustees of 8,630 school districts; and by the latter officers is paid to the teachers in the several district schools. There are more than fifty thousand officers of common schools, and a defalcation, or any misapplication of the school money, by any of the numerous officers through whose hands it passes, is of rare occurrence. In the returns of the present year, two instances only are reported in the whole state.

These are results highly creditable to the fidelity of the officers of common schools; and they give evidence of a zeal in the cause of common school education, and an attention to this vital interest, which must command the approbation, and encourage the hopes, of every friend of our free institutions.

If there is reason to regret that the standard of education, in the schools generally, is much below what it ought to be; still there is good reason to rejoice, that such great results have crowned the efforts of a few years.

It is gratifying to witness the increased attention which men of intelligence are bestowing upon the subject of common school education in all parts of the state. These efforts, aided by the publie press, will invigorate the system, and give a new character to the schools.

A committee of the citizens of Rochester presented a memorial to the last legislature, which evinced much research and attention to the subject of common school instruction; and proposed a plan for a state seminary for the education of teachers, and a town central school, in order to extend the system to each town in the state. This document is numbered 387, of the last session.

The establishment of a seminary for the special education of teachers, has been a favorite plan with those who have turned their attention to the improvement of common schools inthis as well as in other states; and Governor Clinton recommended such a seminary in his message to the Legislature, in 1827.

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The committee on literature, in the Senate, to whom this subject was referred, in a report made to that body, in 1827, (Senate Journals, p. 226,) came to the conclusion that the academies may be made to answer the purpose of seminaries for the preparation of teachers for the common schools. To aid in the accomplishment of this object the act of April 13, 1827, was passed, entitled "An act to provide permanent funds for the annual appropriation to common schools, to increase the literature fund, and to promote the education of teachers."

This law appropriated 150,000 dollars to aid the academies, and 133,616 dollars to aid the common schools; making the total sum of 283,616 dollars, taken from the general funds of the state, and applied to the academies and common schools, in that year.

The Regents of the University have not been unmindful of the obligation which rested upon them, in consequence of this liberal appropriation to the literature fund; and their annual report of 1828, encourages the belief that the seminaries which participate in the literature fund, will in some measure become nurseries of teachers for the common schools.*

In 1830, the sum of ten thousand dollars, arising from the literature fund, was apportioned to fifty-five academies, which reported more than two thousand students pursuing classical studies, or the higher branches of an English education.

The paper marked F, which exhibits the number of academies and their location, the number of scholars, and the money apportioned to each school, as well as their classification in the several districts, is extracted from the appendix to Mr. Butler's Discourse before the Albany Institute. This schedule shows that there is a number equal to seven seminaries, in cach senate district, which

* The Regents in their annual report say "The academies have become, in the opinion of the Regents, what it has been always desirable they should be, fit seminaries for imparting instruction in the higher branches of English education, and especially for qualifying teachers of common schools, as well as for preparing students in classical studies, preliminary to a collelegiate course. For this elevation and degree of usefulness, to which our academies have thus happily attained, they are chiefly indebted to the munificence of the Legislature; first, in the original establishment of the literature fund for the special encouragement of these institutions, and next in the gradual increase of that fund, from time to time, until, by the extraordinary and most liberal endowment of 150,000 dollars, made by the act of April last, the fund has become of such magnitude as to enable the Regents to distribute to every academy, entitled to participate in a dividend, sufficient, with the aid of ordinary tuition money and other revenues, to secure the services of the most able teachers, and thereby to enable the several institutions to fulfil all the beneficial ends for which they were established.

"The Legislature having, by the act before referred to, declared it to be one of their primary objects in the great increase made by them of the literature fund, to promote the education of teachers, the Regents equally with the Legislature, being impressed with the sense of the paramount importance of this great object, will always cheerfully co-operate in promoting its speedy accomplishment."

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are capable of fitting teachers for the common schools. These seminaries have already received, from the funds of the state, in grants of money, of land, and in the revenue of the literature fund, the sum of 169,716 dollars, and are now receiving annually the revenue ($10,000,) of a capital of 256,000 dollars.

What more ready or practicable plan can be offered, than to convert these numerous academies, equal in number to the counties in the state, into seminaries for training teachers? The state has done much for these schools, and something in aid of the cause of the common schools may reasonably be expected from them. And if the required information, to fit a person for teaching, can be obtained in the present institutions, sound policy and good economy are in favor of relying upon them for the training of teachers. There is already invested in real estate, buildings, libraries, and philosophical apparatus, an amount of more than 400,000 dollars in the incorporated academies, which are subject to the visitation of the Regents of the University. The teachers of these academies are represented by the Regents as well qualified to discharge the duties of their stations. Is it not feasible, as well as desirable, to make these seminaries the nurseries for teachers? The Regents are desirous that it should be so, and the instructors of the academies are not only willing, but able, to discharge their duty in the premises. They are generally persons of good talents, of experience in the business of teaching; and they are the very persons from whose ranks the professors of a state institution would be selected, if one was established. Can they not be made equally, if not more, useful in their present situations ?

It is urged, however, that very few of those educated at the colleges or academies, engage as teachers of the common schools, and that there is a very great deficiency in the number of those who are properly qualified.* This state of things is conceded, and the impor

* The committee appointed by the inhabitants of Rochester, addressed circulars to the inspectors of the several towns in Monroe; and the following interesting facts are given as the result:

I. That the average proportion of instruction by male teachers, in each town, is four months. II. By female teachers, five months.

III. That the average number of male teachers, who have received an education at our incorporated academies or colleges, is very small; say from one-fourth to one-tenth of the whole number employed, probably an average of one-eighth.

IV. That" a great number" of incompetent teachers have been employed, and the causes assigned are-The scarcity of competent teachers; the smallness of compensation; the fault of inspectors in giving certificates to incompetent teachers; the yielding of inspectors to the solicitations of trustees to give a certificate after examining a teacher and finding him deficient; the employment of female teachers during the summer months, without being examined; the law requiring a school to be taught only three months by a qualified teacher, to entitle a district to receive its quota of the public money; the neglect of inspectors to visit schools; the want of the necessary interest, in many parents, on the subject of the proper culture of the

tant question arises, why is it so? Is not the principal cause to be traced to the smallness of the compensation of teachers, compared to that which is paid to persons of good talents and acquirements in all the other pursuits of life ?

The expense of a state seminary would be a serious objection, in the present state of the treasury, even if it promised to accomplish, what has not been realized from the academies-namely to supply the districts with first rate teachers, for second rate prices.

The revenues of the State have been liberally contributed in aid of the colleges, academies, common schools, and the canals; and these measures, which have added so much to the honor and glory of the State, as well as to the wealth and permanent good of its inhabitants, have so far exhausted the general funds, that the establishment of seminaries for teachers could only be accomplished by a tax upon the people to pay the expense. If they are unwilling to be assessed in their districts to pay the wages of competent teachers, who have been educated in academies already erected, would they be willing to pay a tax for a seminary to train the teacher, and afterwards contribute in the district to pay him the required wages to ensure his services?

Another plan has been suggested, which contemplates the establishment of state schools; in which it is proposed to relieve the parents from the care of their children, who are to be taken under the guardianship of the state, and not only educated, but clothed, fed and lodged in apartments connected with the establishment.

It is urged in support of this plan, that a strictly republican education is essential to the preservation of that equality which is contemplated by our free institutions, and that "if the children from the state schools are to go every evening, the one to his wealthy parents' soft carpeted drawing-room, and the other to its poor father's or widowed mother's comfortless cabin, they will not return the next day as friends and equals."

minds of their children, exhibited by their neglect to visit the schools, and their disposition to use, in many instances, less liberality in the payment of teachers, than in any other department of domestic economy.

V. That the average compensation, per month, to male teachers, is $12 to $14, to female teachers, $4,50.

VI. That the average number of different kinds of spelling books, used in each town, is four, grammars four, arithmetics five, geographies four.

VII. That the inconvenience experienced from frequent changes of books, arising chiefly from the diversities of taste or judgment in the teachers, " is very great."

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