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the treasurer of the board paying into it that amount out of the money received by him as fees for certificates; and if there be any residue of money received as such fees, it shall be expended by the superintendent of public instruction in the purchase of suitable books for an office library. Said board shall be allowed the necessary expenses incurred in the discharge of the duties required of the same, for clerk hire, postage, etc.; which expenses shall be paid as the expenses of the members of the board are paid. (R. S. 1908, § 6319.)

The next selection illustrates a recent educational reorganization, and the creation of a state board of very large powers.

3. The Oklahoma State Board of Education

[Chapter 47, Session Laws, 1910-1911]

1. State Board of Education Created: The state board of education shall consist of seven members including the state superintendent of public instruction, who shall be the president, and six members appointed by the governor by and with the advice and consent of the senate, for a period of six years, except as hereinafter provided. The appointive members shall possess the same qualifications and be subject to the same restrictions and limitations as are now required of the text-book commission, and at least two of them shall be practical school men who shall have had at least four years experience in actual school work, two years of which shall have been in the state of Oklahoma. Upon the passage and approval of this act two members shall be appointed for a term ending June 30, 1913, two members for a term ending June 30, 1915, and two members for a term ending June 30, 1917, subsequent appointments, except to fill vacancies, shall be for the full term of six years. The appointive members of said board shall receive as compensation for their services the sum of six dollars ($6.00) per day, their necessary traveling expenses, and actual hotel expenses not to exceed three dollars ($3.00) per day, while in the performance of their duties, and they shall not be removed during their term of office except for cause. There shall be appointed by the president to be approved by said board a secretary, who shall receive a salary of two thousand dollars per annum, and a stenographer who shall receive a salary of twelve hundred dollars per annum, payable monthly, and said positions are hereby created.

2. Powers and Duties: The state board of education, organized in pursuance of this act, shall be the legal successor of the state

board of education as it now exists, the state text-book commission, the board of regents of the State University, the board of regents of the university preparatory schools at Tonkawa and Claremore, the board of education now in control of the state normal schools, the board of regents of the Oklahoma Industrial Institute and College for Girls at Chickasha, the board of regents of the School of Mines and Metallurgy at Wilburton, the board of control of the School for the Deaf at Sulphur, the board of control for the School for the Blind, the board of control of the Boys' Training School at Pauls Valley, the board of control of the Orphans' Home at Pryor Creek, the board of control of the Institution for the Feeble-minded at Enid, the board of regents of the Colored Agricultural and Normal University at Langston, the board of regents of the Institute for the Deaf, Blind and Orphans' Home for the colored at Taft; and shall have all the powers, rights and privileges heretofore legally exercised by said boards: Provided, nothing in this act shall invalidate any contracts entered into by the text-book commission. Said board shall have the following additional powers and duties:

a. The general supervision of the public schools of the state. b. To formulate and adopt courses of study for the common schools and county normal institutes; and arrange courses of study, and adopt textbooks for use in the higher educational institutions of the state.

c. To formulate rules and regulations governing the issuance of all certificates to teach in the public schools of this state.

d. To prepare questions for the examination of applicants for county and city certificates to teach in the public schools of the

state.

e. To examine applicants for state certificates, to teach in the public schools of the state, and for conductors' and instructors' certificates to teach in the county normal institutes.

f. To prepare examination questions for graduates from the eighth grade of the public schools.

g. To classify the public high schools of the state and properly accredit them to the various higher educational institutions of the state.

h. To formulate and adopt courses of study for state pupils' reading circles and for state teachers' reading circles; and to select books to be used in said reading circles, and to prepare questions for the issuance of reading circle certificates.

i. The state board of education shall make a biennial report to the governor and legislature, setting forth the work of the board and the conditions of the schools of the state. The board

shall also prepare and submit to the governor thirty days before the convening of each regular session of the legislature a budget estimating the necessary appropriations for each of the institutions under their management and control.

j. Upon application having been made in writing by the organization representing the commercial and business colleges and institutions in the state, it shall be the duty of said board to formulate rules and regulations which shall govern the organization, operation, management and control of said commercial and business. colleges; the authority herein granted, is in addition to that above stated to extend to the formulation and adoption of courses of studies, the length of time necessary to complete the same, and rules and regulations governing the issuance of diplomas by said commercial colleges.

V. STATE EDUCATIONAL ORGANIZATION

The following comments and extracts from important recent documents lay down fundamental principles relating to state educational organization.

1. The State Board of Education

[Extract from an article on "A Constitutional State Board of Education," by Reed, Thomas H., in Sierra Educational News, January, 1913, pp. 21-24.]

(A continuation of the article on pp. 291-292)

This naturally leads us to a consideration of the State Board of Education. We are at present treated to the unusual spectacle, in absolute defiance of the normal arrangement of such institutions, of an elected, political superintendent and an ex-officio, expert board. They have no necessary relation to one another except that the superintendent is a member of the board. As to the board itself there is nothing to be said against the honesty or competency of its individual members. They hold positions which guarantee their qualifications. It has done some things well, notably the raising of the standard for admission to the teaching profession. It has done some things not so well, especially its principal duty of selecting textbooks. As compared with the ex-officio boards of education in other states, it is, of course, composed too exclusively of persons engaged in normal school work to the neglect of primary and secondary education. The chief difficulty with the

board, however, is that it is made up of very busy persons whose full time is taken up with the important duties of the responsible executive positions which they fill and who, in consequence, can give but meagre attention to the business of the board. The present board is tolerable but not over satisfactory in its organization, while its relation to the Superintendent of Public Instruction and the administration of education is wholly erroneous.

From the point of view of the student of administration in general it appears almost self-evident that the functions of administrative boards are properly selective and supervisory. Actual administration, however, should belong to the officials selected by the board for this purpose. Such boards choose their expert servants, watch over them, mitigate the rigors of their professionalism, and stand between them and political pressure. Just as it is necessary to have on a modern automobile a "shock absorber " to minimize the jars of its operation, so it is necessary to have between the professional experts and the people a lay buffer for example, a board which insures the proper selection and supervision of the expert, protecting him against the unintelligent judgment of the masses and the masses against expert narrowness of view. No expert is thoroughly sane. He is, inevitably, obsessed with megalomania as to the importance and wisdom of his own activities. His service needs to be tempered by lay judgment. In the best-known forms of administration, provision has been made for a combination of lay and professional service. In Germany laymen and experts serve side by side on the various boards and committees which administer the several units of local government. The lay members are always in a majority numerically, thus giving them potential control. President Lowell in his "Government of England" ascribes the merit of English administration largely to the characteristic union of lay, political, and responsible officers with professional, non-political officers responsible only to their nominal lay superiors. In the United States this system has been applied with almost uniformly excellent results to the local administration of education. Where it has gone wrong it has been because one party or other to the combination did not know its place. Boards of education sometimes try to run the schools, and superintendents or principals sometimes try to control the politics of the board. It has been applied with success to state administration of education in several instances, notably Massachusetts and New York.

From the above it is no great logical leap to the conclusion that we should have a State Board of Education, the principal duties of which should be to select and supervise the Superintendent of

Public Instruction. The " educational" work now done by the board would pass to the superintendent and the other experts in his office. The members of the board should receive no pay except the necessary expenses incident to attendance on meetings. They should, of course, be men and women of superior education and capacity. It is impossible, however, to frame an educational qualification on any rational basis, and the character of the board would have to be left to the appointing authority. It should be appointed by the governor. Election by the legislature is by no means a satisfactory method, and this is especially true where no traditions as to the character of the persons to be chosen are yet established. The governor's responsibility for a bad appointment would be clearer, and his motive to make good appointments consequently more effective. The term should be a long one and the members of the board should retire in rotation, so that no one governor could obtain political control of it. The term should be at least seven years, and the board might well consist of seven members - thus making the desirable odd number, one retiring on the first Monday in January of each year. The long term takes away from the governor every last motive to abuse his power of appointment. He could not hope, except by accident, to appoint during his term a majority of the board. Since he could not help himself politically by controlling its power and patronage, he would, naturally, aim to secure such credit as he might by good appoint

ments.

Such are the main outlines of a suitable organization of our state administration of education. The next step is the consideration of the practical measures to be taken to secure it. [The article now points out the usual constitutional difficulties, and the changes necessary.] . . . If, therefore, the board is to have the long term so necessary to freedom from political domination, it must be secured by constitutional amendment.

Every lover of efficient administration should unite in urging upon our lawmakers a statute and constitutional amendment embodying a proper plan for the administrative organization of education. We must prepare to surrender our differences on numerous points of detail for the sake of securing the essentials of the reform. It is the part of those who know to present a united front and a clearly defined program to the possible slapdashery of enthusiastic ignorance.

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