state-board of education and under the authority of the laws governing schools passed by the state legislatures. These laws usually prescribe what school-officers there shall be for each school, when and how and for how long and by whom they shall be chosen, the amount of school-taxes to be raised and the manner of raising these, the length of the school-year, the age of pupils, the qualifications of teachers, the subjects to be taught etc.
The important fact to be kept in mind here is that every public rural school is a state institution, organized and governed in accordance with the general laws of the state regarding public schools. Though in many instances the people of the community exercise a large influence in determining the character and policy of the school, they are obliged, nevertheless, to act and proceed in the manner prescribed by the laws governing the public schools of the state.
Support. The best definition of a public school is that it is a school deriving its support entirely or in part from moneys raised by a general state or county or other local tax. The principle that all property and all persons may be taxed for the support of public schools may be called one of the most firmly fixed beliefs of the American people, and one that has aided more than any other in the giving of opportunity for education to every American boy and girl. Rural schools as public schools, with very few exceptions, are supported wholly by public funds.
Each state has its own particular plan of providing money to support its public schools. In the main this money may be said to come from one or more of five sources or according to one of five methods: the local school-tax; the state school-tax; the income from the common-school fund; special licenses and fees; and special state aids and appropriations.
The local tax is that levied annually upon the taxable property in any school-district, township or county. The amount of the tax is fixed either by the people themselves, as in the case of many school-district organizations; or by such school-officers as school-boards, school-directors or school-trustees; or by other local officials, as boards of supervisors and boards of commissioners.
The state school-tax is a tax, regulated in amount by the state law, levied by the state officers upon the taxable property in the state and distributed to the different counties, townships or school-districts, generally, on the basis of the number of children of school-age residing therein. Other methods of distribution, as, for example, valuation of property, school-enrollment, school-attendance or the number of schools or teachers, are also used, singly or in combination. Sometimes, as in California, a special state-tax is levied for the benefit of high schools alone.
The permanent school-funds found in most states were formed principally from the sale and rent of public lands that had been set aside for school-purposes. The income on these funds is alone used for the support of the schools of the state, and this income is apportioned to the various schools of the state according to methods similar to those indicated above for the state school-taxes.
In a number of states special forms of revenue are used to aid in the support of public schools. Among these may be mentioned liquor and other business license-moneys, inheritance-taxes, poll-taxes, dog-taxes, certain classes of fines etc.
The last source of support that may be mentioned relates to the appropriations derived from the state treasury in the form of special aid to particular classes of schools, as high schools, manual-training schools, rural and semirural schools, and to schools for which the ordinary means of support are found to be insufficient. These special aids or subsidies, as they may be called, are employed in several states to raise the general standard of public education by stimulating the attendance of pupils and to encourage the people to establish and maintain efficient schools of the kinds indicated. The system of special aids to rural schools is found in but few states, as for example, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana and in some of the more progressive southern states for the special purpose of securing better school-equipment; yet the signs of the times are that it will soon be more widely used to improve these schools and thereby equalize the educational advantages open to the children of the country districts. The most important problem of the rural schools throughout the whole country is the devising of ways and means to increase the amount of support, so that these schools may be placed on a par with the public schools of the villages and cities.
Teachers. No person is permitted to teach in any public school of any state without having first received a teacher's certificate, which may be obtained by passing a written examination or by completing a course of study at a high school, normal school or college. In almost all of the states of the Union one or more normal schools for the special training of teachers for the public schools exist as a part of the educational system. Certain states require that high schools shall give instruction in those subjects that will be of special value to teachers. This provision has a direct influence upon rural schools, because in very many cases the graduates of high schools become teachers in the rural schools. In addition to the high schools, normal schools and colleges, there are numerous institu-
