USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 27
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Salaries have nominally almost doubled. For 1855 offi- cial figures fix the monthly wages of male teachers at $23.76, and of female teachers at $16.84. For 1890 the salaries ap- pear as $44.40 and $40.20, respectively, the former having been raised eighty-seven per cent, the latter nearly one hun- dred and thirty-nine per cent. But it must be considered that wages under the earlier policy were, in general, exclu- sive of board. "Boarding 'round " certainly had its dis- advantages, but it left the year's salary untouched. And "$25.00 per month and board furnished " then was perhaps quite equal in purchasing power to $40.00 per month now, if out of this one's board must be taken. "Boarding 'round "
320
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
was a convenient way in a pioneer settlement of increasing the wages of the teacher in a needy line.
The figures given, once more, include all the school cor- porations. It is a State average to be considered, and covers very diverse conditions. The centers of wealth and popula- tion are grouped with the towns and villages, and the very unequally situated, but always more or less sparsely settled outlying districts, and, in thought, the aggregate salaries shared equally among them. But it is evident that this represents no concrete fact. While in cities the average compensation for men is $75 and in towns $60, in the town- ships it is but $41.80. For women the showing is even less satisfactory. From $50.40 in cities and $42 in towns their salaries fall in the districts to an average of $37.20 per month. In 180 townships in the State, or in one sixth of the whole number, the average salary of male teachers is less than $35. The same statement is true of women for one fourth of the townships of the State. Moreover, in 100 townships the wages of women teachers average less than $1.50 a day, and in 43 townships men taught the public school for an average of $28 per school month, representing an income of about $1.04 for each of the working days in the entire term. The reports of six counties, all in north- eastern Indiana, show, for the year 1887-'88, an average sal- ary for male teachers, including every township, of $32.53, and for female teachers of $27. But this is not the only coloring to the picture. In fourteen counties the average salary of male teachers in the townships exceeds $45. In Hendricks, Howard, Marion, Posey, and Tippecanoe it is above $47. In a dozen counties women receive $43 or more for work in the district schools.
Upon the whole, notwithstanding meager salaries here and there, there has been substantial advance. Not every teacher now is better paid than formerly. Along with the increased resources for maintaining the schools have come higher standards of teaching efficiency, and more exacting requirements. The employment of teachers becomes more
321
THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM.
and more discriminative. Exceptional ability is paid for- attracts the pay. He who invests little in his preparation and shows but average skill allies himself with mediocre wages and a shifting patronage. Recognition does not always come where it is deserved, nor when, to individuals; but it does to the body of teachers. The business of educat- ing the community is taking its rightful place-slowly, per- haps, but surely-among the interests of all cultured com- munities.
Concerning expenditures for education, it will be seen that, although the tax valuation has barely doubled since 1865, the disbursements for schools have almost quadrupled. From the money point of view, few States are doing more for education than Indiana. Commodious and comfortable and attractive buildings have been gradually substituted for the old-time cabin and box house, the most approved ma- terials are used in their construction (more than a third of the buildings are brick or stone), and modern methods of heating and ventilating and lighting are being rapidly in- troduced. Together these represent a present investment of $14,000,000. Besides these, the apparatus and general appli ยท ances for instruction are estimated to be worth, including school libraries, not less than a million dollars. The sug- gestions of these items in the table will bear study.
13. The Certificating of Teachers.
Along with all the attempts to establish school systems during the first period, not only was the popular standard of qualification for teachers low, but the mode of official selection was loose and in every way wanting in respect. It was scarcely improved for the first ten years under the new law of 1852. These defects have been mentioned elsewhere and call for no further treatment here.
Not until 1865 can it be said that the examining and licensing of teachers received the systematic and dignified consideration to which its importance entitled it and the needs of the schools demanded. The branches upon which
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
applicants were required to be examined were now first specified and the length of licenses fixed. There were four grades of certificates-for six, twelve, eighteen, and twenty- four months, according to the examination. This classifica- tion of licenses remained practically unchanged until 1883, when the eighteen months' license was discontinued, that for six months made a trial license, and provision made for a three years' certificate.
Since the first called meeting of the Examiners by Super- intendent Hoshour, in 1862, the mode and standards and conditions of the best certificating of teachers have been perennially considered by everybody concerned with the execution of the law. In 1871 the Board of Education, al- ways solicitous for the improvement of the schools and ag- gressive to that end, began the monthly preparation of questions upon the legal branches, "sending printed copies to the examiners of the several counties with instructions to use them in the examination of teachers for the public schools." The use of the questions is in nowise obligatory, but is nevertheless practically universal .* It has elevated the general average of the examinations, unified the work throughout the State, given added authority and stability to this part of the system, tended to make the test relatively more professional, and, with the hearty co-operation which the movement has received from county superintendents, individually and in convention, has had the effect sensibly to dignify the educational interest.
But along with this system of the local examination and licensing of teachers for service in their several counties has been developed also a form of certification by the State Board of Education to apply throughout the State.
The beginnings of this movement were in the revised school law of 1865, providing for the granting of life licenses to teachers who "may, upon a thorough and critical exami-
* For a statement of the abuse of this State policy in certain counties, sce Superintendent Bloss's Report, 1882.
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THE COMMON SCHOOL SYSTEM.
tion, be found to possess eminent scholarship and profes- sional ability, and shall furnish satisfactory evidence of good moral character." Immediately an act of the board re- quired that the applicant for State license (valid for life) should have had thirty-six months' experience in teaching, ten months of which time must have been spent in Indiana; should show a high degree of proficiency in the theory and practice of teaching; and should give evidence of an accu- rate and comprehensive knowledge of the branches (six at that time) required by law: physiology and history of the United States; elementary algebra and geometry and the first principles of natural philosophy; physical geography and elementary botany; the elements of rhetoric and men- tal and moral science; the Constitutions of the United States and of Indiana; and the State school law. The first persons so licensed were Thomas Charles, William A. Bell, H. S. McRae, Charles Hewitt, Hiram J. McCombes, Ebene- zer Tucker, Sarah Paxton, and Miss A. A. Clement.
In 1871 the board provided for two grades of State cer- tificates. The second or lower-grade license omitted from the test all physical science except natural philosophy, all higher mathematics, and substituted for rhetoric the art of composition. To the former requirements there were also asked of the candidate for a first-grade certificate, proficiency in general history and zoology. The present order allows but one grade of life license, requires forty-eight months' experience, and includes in the subjects of examination, be- sides those previously mentioned, English and American lit- erature; and may include Latin, German, and other branches, at the option of the applicant.
Besides these, the law of 1883 provided for a "profes- sional license," valid in any part of the State and good for eight years. To this test any one is eligible who holds two successive licenses each for thirty-six months, the examina- tion being prescribed by the State Board of Education and conducted by the County Superintendent, the papers being graded and the license finally issued by the State board.
324
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
CHAPTER XXV.
SCHOOL REVENUES.
So much of the State's school moneys as is made by law a permanent principal, held or invested for purposes of edu- cation, is known as the "School Fund." It may be aug- mented, but may not be diminished, the counties being held liable for its preservation. "School revenues," on the con- trary, include all moneys from whatever public source ex- pended upon the schools, or which may by law be so ex- pended. As the permanent fund may not become revenue, so no part of the revenue becomes permanent fund. If by any means the moneys to which a county or township or city is entitled in the management of its schools are not used, they are held, and may be invested for the subsequent benefit of the county, the whole afterward being available for revenue in said county.
1. Kinds of Revenues.
Of the revenues available for the schools, a part are de- rived from the locality, as local taxes and liquor licenses, or from invested funds that have been held to belong to the township, as the Congressional Township Fund. These are local revenues, and are managed wholly by local officers in the interest of local schools. Another, but somewhat larger, part comes from State taxes, the interest on the Common School Fund, and certain moneys, as unclaimed fees, which, though collected by the locality, are turned into the State treasury. The latter are apportioned by the State authori- ties, while the former are managed by the county officers:
As already implied in the previous paragraphs, a portion of the revenue for schools is derived from interest on per- manent invested funds. These include moneys held by the counties as parts of the Common School Fund, and by town- ships as the Sixteenth Section Fund. The remainder of the revenue, with inconsiderable exceptions, comes from taxes
325
SCHOOL REVENUES.
annually levied for school purposes on the property of tax- payers, the former, or the interest on invested school funds, being but about one eighth of all the revenues expended upon the schools.
Another distinction that must be made is between tuition revenues and moneys for building and other such purposes. Taxes were legalized and other moneys set apart for the erection of school-houses, their furnishing and appliances, as early as the law of 1824; and not until later, and then meagerly, was provision made for the payment of tuition. Under the present law all school revenues are "revenues for tuition," except the special school tax levied by school trust- ees for building and furnishing. Teachers' salaries are paid from the former, all other expenses being met from the latter. The former are partly State and partly local; the latter only local. Moreover, the special school revenue is derived from taxation alone; neither State nor local perma- nent funds may contribute their proceeds for building. Pri- marily the locality has been held to supply the building ; except for the period from 1854 to 1867 it has also supple- mented the State and school-section revenue for tuition.
Finally, there must be discriminated revenues as (1) fixed and (2) variable. Under the first will be included all inter- est on permanent funds, whether county or township, and the proceeds of tax levies; the property list being known, the an- nual rate represents a calculable assessment. To the latter belong all contingent moneys set apart for expenditure upon schools, such as the unclaimed fees from clerks' and justices' dockets, turned into the State treasury, and the local liquor licenses, expended in the municipality where assessed and collected, both variable and uncertain. These furnish an- nually under the present laws about $400,000 of the more than $5,000,000 expended upon the public schools of the State.
Of all these, the most important distinction to be made is that between State and local revenues.
22
326
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
2. Sources of Revenue.
The total present Common School Fund is $7,290,065.21. This is now all held by the counties; and not for the prin- cipal alone, but for six per cent interest thereon, the counties are made liable to the extent of their share of the trust. This yields $437,404, which is paid annually into the State treas- ury and thence applied by official apportionment to the sup- port of the schools.
The Congressional Township Fund comprises the pro- ceeds of the sales of the school sections, and is managed by the county auditors. The interest upon this sum, now $2,- 494,105.35, at six per cent, amounts to $149,846.32, appro- priated to the schools through the county auditor and treas- urer and the township trustee. Besides this interest on the invested fund of the townships, there remain the rents of the school sections, which are managed by the township trustee, the income paid into the county treasury and held as township revenue for schools. The total revenue from the school section, including both interest and rentals, is about $200,000; indeed, since 1876 the average annual income from this source has been more than $190,000.
Prior to 1852 the State had never voted a dollar of tax for the general support of its schools, nor a single appro- priation; but, as if to atone for the long neglect, section 1 of the act of June 14, 1852, provided " that there shall be an- nually assessed and collected, as the State and county reve- nues are assessed and collected, first, on the list of property taxable for State purposes, the sum of ten cents on each one hundred dollars " for the support of schools. It meant a radical reform. This rate was unchanged for thirteen years; but the aggregate State revenue was increased in 1855 by adding to this provision a fifty-cent poll tax, assessed and collected as the other, and for school purposes. Notwith- standing the revenues were considerably increased by this change, the school moneys were yet all too meager for the demand, and in 1865 the rate was raised to sixteen cents, and has been so continued since.
327
SCHOOL REVENUES.
For the first ten years of this State school policy the general tax had been less than $350,000, or about eighty- seven and one half cents per year for each child. With the change in the law, however, the total annual revenue from the sixteen-cent property tax and the fifty-cent poll tax greatly increased, and in 1870 had exceeded a million dol- lars. For the last twenty years the proceeds have averaged more than a million and a quarter annually. For 1890 it was $1,436,000.
As early as 1837 the law had authorized a local tuition tax, similar to the building tax, depending upon the vote of the district, and not to exceed one fourth of one per cent on the value of the property listed. Even this could not be enforced upon or collected from one who did "not partici- pate in the benefits of the school funds "-i. e., patronize the school. Essentially the same provisions were made by all subsequent laws, including that of 1849.
But in 1852 section 130 authorized the voters of any township, at any general or special meeting, "to vote a tax for the purpose of ... continuing their schools after the public funds shall have been expended, to any amount not exceeding annually fifty cents on each one hundred dollars of property and fifty cents on each poll." Exactly similar privileges were granted to incorporated cities and towns, except that no limit was specified; but they should have power, " by a vote of the qualified voters of the corporation or by an ordinance, to levy taxes for the support of their schools after the public funds shall have been exhausted."
The former provision in favor of the townships was, by the Supreme Court in 1854, decided unconstitutional; but the latter was left untouched. Over-bold, perhaps, by being let alone, the cities in 1855 secured the passage of an " Act to authorize the establishment of free public schools in the in- corporated cities and towns of Indiana, as follows: 'That the several incorporated cities and towns of this State be, and they are hereby, authorized and empowered to establish and support public schools within their respective corporate
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
limits, and by an ordinance of such corporation to levy and collect such taxes as may be necessary from time to time for the support thereof.'" This was a sweeping concession to the centers of population, slipped through the Legislature as a sort of challenge to the Supreme Court, inasmuch as what was unconstitutional for the townships touching local taxes could seem to have little claim for favor in the cities.
By the Supreme Court,* in 1857, this section also was held to be unconstitutional, as had been the like provision for local taxation for tuition purposes in the townships three years before. For ten years in the cities and incorporated towns, and for thirteen years in the townships, then, all provision for local taxes for tuition were expunged from the statutes, and prohibited by the courts. The localities might provide the houses and their furnishing, but the payment of tuition by taxes belonged to the State alone.
By the act of March 9, 1867, however, as has been else- where recounted, the former provision was restored for all school corporations as follows:
"SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Indiana, That the trustees of the civil townships, the trustees of incorporated towns, and the common councils of cities, shall have the power to levy annually a tax not ex- ceeding twenty-five cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property, and twenty-five cents on each taxable poll; which tax shall be assessed and collected as the taxes for State and county revenue are assessed and collected.
"SEC. 2. The funds arising from such tax shall be under the charge and control of the same officers, secured by the same guarantees, subject to the same rules and regulations, and applied and expended in the same manner as funds arising from taxation for common school-purposes by the laws of this State; Provided, That the funds assessed and collected in any civil township, incorporated town, or city, shall be applied and expended in the same civil township,
* Judge Perkins, January 22, 1857.
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SCHOOL REVENUES.
incorporated town, or city, in which such funds shall have been assessed and collected."
Under this act the first taxes distributed were in 1873- an aggregate for the counties of more than half a million dollars, or nearly twenty-five per cent of the total tuition revenue for the year. For the entire period since it has averaged more than $800,000, and for the last five years more than a million dollars, being more than one third of all tui- tion expenditures for the period.
For many years the unclaimed fees went, or were sup- posed to go, to the augmenting of the permanent fund. Since 1861, however, they have been added to the common- school revenue, turned over with other moneys to the State treasury, and apportioned by the State Superintendent to the counties, as provided by law. How much accrued to the permanent fund from this source in the years from 1842 to 1861 can not now be estimated; but from the latter date, when the fees were made revenue, to the present-a period of nearly thirty years-they have aggregated about $200,000, four fifths of which have been realized within the last five years.
Table of Unclaimed Fees since 1864.
1864
$433 36
1878
$1,383 04
1865
280 76
1879
1,095 03
1866
584 59
1880
454 55
1867
1,286 37
1881
666 42
1868
1,038 02
1882
2,010 35
1869
1,249 75
1883
1,451 81
1870
451 01
18S4.
608 37
1871
985 46
1885
56,710 80
1872
500 38
1886
43,249 14
1873
7,193 72
1887
1874
2,503 93
1888
20,383 07
1875
2,601 66
1889
23,094 39
1876
912 11
1890
43,393 11
1877
1,961 95
It was first provided, by an act of March, 1859, that any one wishing to sell intoxicating liquors in less quantities
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
than a quart at a time must take out a traders' license, pay- ing for the privilege, and annually thereafter fifty dollars, to be expended in the support of common schools. The policy was reindorsed by the law of 1875, and by succeeding laws, the proceeds being turned into the year's revenue of the county and expended for tuition. In the quarter of a century of these collections more than four million dollars have been realized from this source, the annual income hav- ing more than quadrupled in twenty years.
Table of School Revenue from Liquor Licenses since 1863.
1863
$44,184 00
1877
$193,107 00
1864.
51,750 00
1878.
169,238 00
1865
78,415 00
1879
193,512 00
1866
84,225 00
1880
1867.
76,500 00
1881
196,333 00
1868
80,000 00
1882
260,397 00
1869
89,258 00
1883
279,886 00
1870
81,700 00
1884
100,017 00
1871
99,800 00
1885.
308,454 00
1872
108,280 00
1886.
318,472 00
1873
40,213 00
1887.
331,257 00
1874
35,000 00
1888
344,343 00
1875
217,562 00
1889
390,071 71
1876
199,612 00
1890
397,176 06
From the inception of the State school system, local taxes for building purposes have been legalized. Indeed, it has been the policy of the State, uniformly maintained, to leave all building to the localities, and to prohibit the use of gen- eral funds for the furnishing of all or any material sup- plies.
By the law of 1824 the means for building was chiefly the labor of householders. The provisions of the act of 1837 were somewhat more complicated, but of like significance, any freeholder or householder being at liberty to pay an assessed tax for building either in money, in labor (at fifty cents a day), or in materials of equal value, or stand subject to suit by judgment before a justice of the peace. But no
331
SCHOOL REVENUES.
person should be held liable for more than one fourth of one per cent per annum on his property. A money tax for building was rare.
No considerable change appears in the subsequent legis- lation prior to 1849, when it was left to the qualified voters of a school district to vote such a tax for these purposes as the majority might deem proper. It was also provided that an additional levy might be made for tuition purposes to extend the public term, but both taxes should not exceed in any one year fifteen cents on each one hundred dollars' worth of property. The year following, however, this limit was made, for certain counties,* twenty-five cents on each one hundred dollars and twenty-five cents on each poll.
By the law of 1852, also, no distinction was made between taxes for building and taxes for continuation of schools- that is, tuition-but the aggregate should not exceed fifty cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property and fifty cents on each poll. Of course, it must be noted that the important fact is not the increase of the rate, but that the raising of the moneys was now made a function of the town- ship, not the district.
Three years later, the right to local-tuition taxes being denied by the Supreme Court, all local taxes became build- ing taxes, and were reduced to a twenty-five-cent property tax and fifty cents on each poll for townships, cities being empowered "to levy and collect such taxes as may be neces- sary from time to time" for the like purpose. It was held to be the imperative duty of the township trustees to levy taxes for the erection of as many school-houses as would be sufficient to accommodate all the children in the township. In case of refusal, they might be compelled by legal process.
This provision was reaffirmed in the act of March, 1861, and the proceeds, first called a special school tax, being ap- plied alike to cities, incorporated towns, and townships. But the levy might now be made upon the judgment of the trus-
* Those not assenting to the law of 1849,
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
tees themselves, and needed not, as before, the concurrence of the county commissioners. By an act of 1873 the build- ing tax was doubled, the rate being a fifty-cent property tax and a poll tax of one dollar. This provision is still in force, reading as follows:
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