'UNITED STATES.
In the 'United States, the control and support of the education of the people have been left prac tically to the several State governments. central (4u-eminent has, however, dealt with the matter in a few eases. The Ordinance of 1787 provided that one section of each township the Northwest Territory should be as school land. and that the proceeds of its sale should go to the support of public schools. After States were organized in this the funds derived from these lands were turned over to them for educational purposes. Similar grants of land were made to other new Stales. notably in 1811. in 18I9, and in Ncrt. Up to 1 900 t S0.001000 acres had been devoted to this These grants were supplemented in 18:10 by a gift to the several States of surplus funds in the National Treasury, the sums thus being by most of them devoted to the support of In POi.2 the Morrill Aet set aside additional lands for the maintenanee of colleges, in which and 1/well:mica) arts and military tactics were to la• taught. and the State univer have been the recipients of these gifts. The central Oovernment established. in P4G7, the lturean of Education, the main objects of which :ire the collection of statistics and the preparation of reports.
Each of the several Stales maintains a system of free public schools, elementary. sec ondary or high schools. and. in the ease of twenty nine of them. universities as well. The older States. where and universities on private foundations have for a time existed, have not in most eases added such institutions.
For the elementary schools three systems of con trol exist. The first of these is the district systhr, according, to which the control of each school is left in the hands of a board elected by the people of the district in which it is placed. Under the township system all schools that are located within the region of a township arc placed under one board. According to the county sys tem, the schools of a whole county are under the control of county boards or school commis sions. The district system was developed in New England after the scattering of the popula tion, due to the cessation of the early Indian wars. It spread to the States of the \Vest. Later, owing largely to the opposition of re formers. like Horace [aim who maintained that the district system meant insufficient support and inexpert supervision for the common schools, New England came to adopt the township sys tem. The county system has been peculiar to the Southern States from the first, and to-day it exists in nine States, all of which except Utah are Southern. The' township system exists or partially in eighteen States, and the district system in thirty-three.
With the of more elaborate sehool systems. the supervision of the State became a
more and more prominent feature. New York, in 1812, created a superintendent of common schools. This example was followed by others. and to-day there are State superintendents in all States. In most of them there is also a State board of edu which usually manages State school funds, and either directly or indirectly determines the qualifications of teaehers. For more minute su pervision. there is inspection either by a county superintendent or by the township or district committees. Tn thirty-five States the county su pervision prevails. In New England the town ship school committees do the supervising. In addition, at least 835 cities have superintendents for their public schools. The demand for uniformity and in the schools, as a whole, has led not only to the creation of larger units for the control or supervision of schools, but also to the cstaldishment of State funds, and the levying of State taxes to supplement local contributions to the Cause of education. The State taxes are relied on to raise as much as three-fourths of the school money in some States, and the amount is largest in the Southern States and those of the far West. The North Central and North Atlantic States generally rely more on local taxes, Massachusetts having no regular State tax. The local taxes are raised either in the township or, as in the far West and South, in the county. Where there is a county tax, this may usually be supplemented by a district tax levied by local vote. The levying of this tax is in the hands of the legislative bodies of State, county, or local division, although sometimes the educational bodies have the power of determining, the amount to lie raised. Frequently State law determines the minimum amount to be raised by local Tn the earlier colonial period secondary in struction was given in what were called grammar schools. These institutions admitted children who had mastered merely the rudiments of English, and prepared them for college. The high schools were, however, preceded by acade mies. They were introduced into the United States as a substitute for both the grammar schools and the colleges. Many of these acade mies received, in addition to private endow ments, large grants from the States. Some of her grew into colleges and later into univer sities. Academies for girls were established, and thus the way was paved for the higher education of women. The' academics offered a somewhat wider and more liberal course of study than the older grammar schools and colleges. which were concerned mainly with the classics. In this way they led to the more liberal high schools and tc the extension of the collage curriculum.