scholastic period of the current year shall be paid by the county superintendent amounts equal to the pro rata of such children in said apportionment of funds. Attendance.-Every minor above 7 years shall be entitled to attend and receive instruction in some public school of his race in the State. Children that have attended the number of days they are entitled to at one school shall not attend another during the same scholastic year unless by consent of the trustees of the latter. Parents or guardians residing in the State, but nonresident in a district wherein they pay school tax on $500 worth of real estate, shall be entitled to school privileges for their children in such district. Teachers must keep a register of pupils' daily attendance. Fifty pupils is the maximum number allowed one teacher.

Studies. (See Teachers; Certificates; Duties.)

Location of buildings.-When but one school is established in a township it shall be so located as to accommodate the largest number of pupils and to encourage the building of a permanent schoolhouse as near the center of the township as possible; such location may be changed by trustees from year to year in order to provide for those who were not in reach of the school in previous years. In locating schools trustees must have regard to population, surroundings, any schoolhouse already built or site procured, and all other circumstances necessary to be considered, so as to promote the interests of free public education. (See also Finances; Taxation.)

Scholastic periods.-Scholastic year begins October 1, ends September 30. Twenty days constitute a school month; not less than six hours a school day. County superintendents shall not approve a teacher's contract (which see) for a less period than five months, except for an unexpired term, unless it be found absolutely impracticable to make the term five months, in which case State superintendent must also approve.

4. FINANCES.

Educational fund-Taxation.

Educational fund.-On October 1 each year the State auditor shall place to the credit of the educational fund the following: Six per cent interest on all sums received from sales of lands granted by the United States for school purposes; 4 per cent interest on the surplus revenue of the United States deposited with the State under act of Congress approved June 23, 1836; rents or other income from unsold lands received from the United States or other source for the benefit of public schools; all sums that may accrue to the State as escheats, and a further annual appropriation of $550,000. State superintendent shall set apart an amount sufficient to pay expenses of the department of education lawfully paid from such fund, amounts appropriated for normal schools, and then apportion the balance of such fund among the several townships and school districts according to scholastic population, advising each county superintendent of the several amounts apportioned to schools under his supervision.

Taxation. All poll tax collected in any county shall be retained therein for the support of its schools. Also other licenses, required by law to be paid into the county school fund, shall be paid by county officials direct to the county superintendent and disbursed by him. Each township or district shall receive for the benefit of its schools all the poll tax collected therein. The amount paid by white persons shall be applied exclusively to the maintenance of schools for white children and that paid by colored for colored. All other local school funds raised by taxation or otherwise shall be expended in the districts in and for which they were raised. None of the apportionment from the State shall be used for schoolhouses, furniture, or other contingent expenses.

ARKANSAS.

1. ORGANIZATION OF THE SYSTEM.

State superintendent-State commissioners of the school fund-County examiners-District board.

State superintendent.-Every two years there shall be elected a State superintendent of public instruction, who shall have the general superintendence of the business of the free common schools of the State. He shall have an office

at the seat of government, where he shall keep the matter that accumulates by virtue of his office and where he shall be in attendance when not necessarily absent on business. He shall furnish suitable questions for the examination of teachers; prepare and transmit to county examiners the necessary forms and registers; prepare and have printed a course of study for the rural schools of the State, giving the branches to be taught in each grade and directions to teachers on the proper methods of teaching each subject, and supervise the school funds so far as to insure their safety. He shall make an annual report to the governor, showing the number of persons between the ages of 6 and 21 years residing in the State on the 1st day of the preceding July; number of such persons in each county; number of each sex; number white and colored; the whole number of such persons that attended the free common schools of the State during the year ending the 30th day of the last preceding June, and the number in each county that attended during the same period; number of whites of each sex that attended and number of colored of each sex that attended the said schools; the number of common schools in the State; number of pupils that studied each of the branches taught; average wages paid teachers of each sex; the relative average wages paid to male and female teachers, respectively, according to the different grades of the certificates; number of schoolhouses erected during the year, the material and cost thereof; the number previously erected, the material of which they were constructed, their condition and value; the number with their grounds inclosed; the counties in which teachers' institutes were held, and the number that attended the institutes in each county.

He shall likewise report the amount of permanent school fund belonging to the State at the close of the fiscal school year and the amount of other property apportioned to school purposes; the nature, kind, and amount of the investments made of the same; the safety and permanency of such investments; the amount of revenue accruing from the school funds; the income received from the per capita assessment of each county and the amount derived from such assessments in all the counties of the State; the income derived from all other sources, together with the amount derived from each; likewise, in what sums, for what purposes, and in what manner the said school revenue shall have been expended and what moneys of various kinds are in the various county treasuries unexpended.

He shall also append to his report a statistical table, compiled from the materials transmitted to his office by school officers, with proper summaries, averages, and totals given, and shall present such comparison of results and such an exhibit of his administration and of the operation of the common free school system, together with such statements of the true condition of the schools of the State as shall distinctly show the improvements and progress made from year to year in the department of public instruction. He may print 5.000 copies of his report.

He shall apportion the common school fund on September 1, and shall from time to time issue editions of the school law, shall have access to the auditor's books and papers, and may grant State and professional certificates. A vacancy in the office shall be filled by the governor.

State commissioners of the school fund.-(See Finances; Funds.)

County examiner.-The county court of each county shall at the first term thereof after each general election appoint, in each county not divided into two judicial districts, one county examiner; and in each county divided into two judicial districts may appoint one county examiner for each district, such examiner to be of high moral character and scholastic attainments; and all county examiners shall be required before entering upon the duties of their offices to stand the same examination as is required of the teachers who receive firstgrade licenses, and no one shall fill the offices of county examiner and school director at the same time. All county examiners shall be paid such salary each year as may be fixed by the county judge.

It shall be the duty of the examiner to examine and license teachers of common schools. The county examiner shall hold at the county seat a public examination on the third Thursday and Friday of March, June, September, and December, using the questions prepared by the department of public instruction. The questions shall be mailed under seal and shall not be opened until the day of examination, and then in the presence of the applicants for license. He shall encourage the inhabitants to organize school districts, to establish public schools; direct the attention of teachers and patrons to those methods of instruction that will best promote mental and moral culture, and to the most feasible and improved plan for building and ventilating schoolhouses; labor to create

among the people an interest in the public schools. He shall receive the reports of the district directors, and shall annually on or before August 10, prepare in tabular form an abstract of the reports made to him by the directors of the school districts embraced within his county, showing the number of organized districts in his county on the 1st day of July preceding; districts that have made their annual reports; number of persons in each district between the ages of 6 and 21 years, distinguishing the sex and color of said persons; number of said persons that attended school during the year, the average number of males and females in daily attendance, and the number that pursued each of the studies designated to be taught in the common schools; number of teachers of each sex employed in his county, average wages paid per month to teachers of each sex, according to the grade of their certificates, whole amount paid as teachers' wages in his county, number of pupils that studied in his county, and the several branches taught; number of schoolhouses erected during the year in his county, material and cost of same, number before erected, material used in their construction, their condition, and value; number of grounds inclosed; amount of money raised by tax in each district, and for what purpose raised; amounts expended and for what purposes; amount of revenue received by his county from the common school fund and received for the support of schools from each of all other sources; for what purposes and in what sums the said revenues were expended, and what amounts unexpended were at. the close of the school year in the county treasury; and shall report also the number of deaf mutes, blind, and insane in each school district in his county under 30 years of age, their names and their post-offices. Failing to make this report he shall forfeit $25. His expenses for actual and unavoidable expenses of his office to the sum of $25 may be allowed by the county court. District board. The county court shall have power to dissolve any school district when petitioned by a majority of the electors concerned to do so. school district shall be formed having less than 25 persons of the scholastic age. The electors of every school district shall, when lawfully assembled in annual district school meeting, with not less than five electors present, have the power, by a majority of the votes cast at such meeting, to choose a chairman; adjourn from time to time; appoint when necesary, in the absence of the directors of the district, a clerk pro tempore; elect a director for the district for the next three school years who can read and write; designate a site for a schoolhouse; determine the length of time during which a school shall be taught more than three months in the year; determine what amount of money shall be raised by tax, not to exceed one-half of 1 per cent on the taxable property of the district, sufficient, with the public school revenues apportioned to the district, to defray the expenses of a school for three months, or for any greater length of time they may decide to have a school taught during the year. They may, if sufficient revenue can not be raised to sustain a school for three months in any one year, determine by ballot that no school shall be taught during such year, in which case the revenue belonging to such district shall remain in the treasury to the credit of such school district.

No

There shall be annually elected by the voters in each school district a director, who shall hold his office for the term of three years and until his successor shall have been elected and qualified. Any person who shall have been elected or appointed a director and shall neglect or refuse to qualify and serve as such shall forfeit to his district the sum of $10, which may be recovered by action against him at the instance of any elector in the district, and which, when collected, shall be paid into the county treasury by the officer before whom the action was maintained and added by the treasurer to the school-fund revenues appropriated by the district. Any director who shall neglect or fail to perform any duties of his office shall forfeit to his district the sum of $25.

The directors shall have charge of the school affairs of their districts and shall have the care and custody of the schoolhouses and grounds, books, records, papers, and other property belonging to the district, shall carefully preserve the same, preventing waste and damage, and shall purchase or lease, in the corporate name of the district, such schoolhouse site as may be designated by a majority of the legal votes at the district meeting; shall hire, purchase, or build a schoolhouse with funds provided by the district for that purpose, and may sell or exchange such site of schoolhouse when so directed by a majority of the electors of any legal meeting of the district.

They shall hire teachers, but shall not employ any teacher who is related to any of them within the fourth degree of consanguinity or affinity, unless peti

tioned to do so by three-fourths of the patrons of the district; shall adopt text-books, visit the schools at least once each term, and when not of a special district may expend annually as much as $25 for maps, charts, globes, dictionaries, and other apparatus, subject to the approval of the State superintend, ut. They shall procure from the county examiner and furnish the teacher at the commencement of the term a register for his school, and require the said teacher to report in the said register at the close of the school term the number of days of the said term, name and age of each pupil, date on which each entered the school, separate days on which each attended, whole number of days each attended, studies each pursued, total number of days all pupils attended, average daily attendance, and the number of visits received from the directors during the term.

They shall submit to the district at the annual meeting an estimate of the expenses of the district for that year, including the expenses of a school for the term of three months for the next year, after deducting the probable amount of school moneys to be apportioned to the district for that school year, and shall also submit an estimate of the expenses per month of continuing the school beyond the term of three months, and of whatever else may be necessary for the comfort and advancement of the said school.

Cities and towns may organize as separate school districts with a board of six directors.

2. TEACHERS.

Certificates-Duties--Institutes.

Certificates.—Any person who shall teach without a certificate of qualification shall not be entitled to compensation for such service from common school funds, unless his license expires during the term named in the written contract with the board of directors.

The State superintendent shall furnish the county examiner suitable questions for the examination of teachers. He may grant State life certificates to any person in the State who may pass a thorough examination in all those branches required for county certificates, and also algebra, geometry, physics, rhetoric, mental philosophy, history, Latin, the Constitution of the United States and of Arkansas, natural history, and the theory and art of teaching. He may grant a professional certificate, valid in any county for six years, to any person who shall pass an examination in the branches required for a first-grade certificate and in plane geometry, general history, algebra, and rhetoric.

It shall be the duty of the county examiner to examine and license teachers; but no person shall be licensed who is given to profanity, drunkenness, gambling, licentiousness, or other demoralizing vices, or who does not believe in the existence of a Supreme Being. The examiner shall not be required to give private examinations. To those passing a satisfactory examination in grammar, arithmetic, United States history, reading, writing, spelling, and geography, he may grant a third-grade certificate, valid in the county for six months; for a secondgrade certificate are required the additional branches of Arkansas history, physiology and hygiene, and theory and practice of teaching; for a first grade elementary algebra and civil government still additional. In addition, every applicant shall be examined as to his knowledge and proficiency in the method of designating and reading the survey of lands by ranges, townships, and sections, as platted and designated by the United States Government.

The county examiner may cite to reexamination any person holding a license and under contract to teach any free school in his county; and on being satisfied by reexamination or other means that such person does not sustain a good moral character or has not sufficient learning or ability to render him a competent teacher, he may revoke the license of such person; and in case of such revocation be shall immediately give notice to the teacher and directors involved and thereby terminate the contract between said parties, but the wages of such teacher shall be paid for the time he actually taught prior to such notice. (See also Organization-County examiner.)

Other duties.-Every teacher shall keep a daily register of his school in the manner prescribed by law and indicated by the blank school register to be furnished by the directors at the beginning of his school. No teacher shall be entitled to the last month's pay for any school taught by him until he shall have returned to the directors of the district the daily register, with all statistical work required by law perfected and complete. Every teacher shall follow as

closely as practicable the course of study issued by the department of public instruction.

Institutes.

It shall be the duty of all teachers of the public schools to attend one institute annually, which shall be held by the county examiner after having given twenty days' notice of the time and place, and no teacher shall be charged for loss of time while necessarily absent from his school to attend such institute or to attend a quarterly examination.

3. SCHOOLS.

Attendance-Character of instruction-Text-books-Buildings.

Attendance.-The district board shall make provision for establishing separate schools for white and colored children of school age, and shall adopt such other measures as they may judge expedient for carrying the free school system into uniform operation throughout the State, and providing as nearly as possible for the education of every youth 6 to 21 years of age for at least three months in the year. In special districts schools shall be kept open at least three, but not more than ten, months.

Character of instruction.-The board of directors in special districts may establish primary, graded, or high schools and employ a superintendent. [Reference is made to the studies in which teachers are required to be examined or the text-books used as indicating the branches taught in the public schools.]

Text-books.-The State superintendent shall prepare, for the benefit of the common schools of the State, a list of text-books on orthography, reading in English, mental and written arithmetic, penmanship, English grammar, modern geography, and history of the United States as are best adapted to the wants of the learner, and as have been prepared with reference to the most philosophical methods of teaching those branches, and shall recommend the said text-books to teachers and to directors throughout the State. At the annual school election on the third Saturday in May the voters of each school district may vote on the question of uniformity of text-books. If a majority of the votes cast be in favor of uniformity, the county judge shall appoint two citizens interested in public schools and the State superintendent shall appoint two teachers holding firstgrade certificates who, with the county examiner as chairman, shall constitute the county schoolbook board and shall select a series of text-books to be used exclusively in the county for six years. Any teacher using any other book instead of those adopted by said board shall be subject to a fine of not less than $15. Fine for selling book at higher than contract price not less than $10.

Buildings. The directors have the care and custody of the district school property, and shall acquire or sell property when directed by a majority of the electors in other than special districts.

Any person who shall willfully destroy or injure any building used as a schoolhouse or for other educational purposes, or any furniture, fixtures, or apparatus thereto belonging, or who shall deface, mar, or disfigure any such building, furniture, or fixtures, by writing, cutting, painting, or posting thereon any likeness, figure, words, or device without the consent of the teacher or other person having control of such house, furniture, or fixtures shall be fined in a sum double the value of any such building, furniture, fixtures, or apparatus so destroyed, and shall be fined in a sum not less than $10 nor more than $50 for each offense for writing, painting, cutting, or pasting in any such building, furniture, or fixtures any such words, figures, likeness, or device, to be recovered by civil action in any court of competent jurisdiction, and this punishment is not in lieu of that provided by the statutes for such offenses.

4. FINANCE.

Funds (permanent or special)—-Taxation.

Funds (permanent or special). The proceeds of all lands that have been or bereafter may be granted by the United States to this State and not otherwise appropriated by the United States or this State; also moneys, stocks, bonds, lands, and other property now belonging to any fund for purposes of education; also the net proceeds of all sales of lands and other property and effects that may accrue to this State by escheat, or from sales of estrays, or from unclaimed dividends or distributive shares of estates of deceased persons; also any proceeds of the sale of public lands which may have been or may be hereafter paid