160 B7 839 opy 1 . 160 B7 839 opy 1 W SENATE No. 51, COMMUNICATION SECRETARY OF THE BOARD OF EDUCATION. 2 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, L (50 eominonU3eaUlj of Mun^atlm In Senate, March 5, A. D. 1839. Ordered, That the Secretary of the Board of Educa- tion be requested to furnish the Senate with the amount of expense incurred by said Board, or by said Secretary, for printing, from the organization of said Board to the present time, with the name of the document, the number printed, the amount which each number and kind have cost, designating particularly the object of such document. Also the expense of distribution, stating the amount paid to the Sheriffs of the several counties, and to others who may have received a compensation from the State for the distributing said documents. Also all other expenditures of said Board of Education, or said Secretary, in the perfortnance of the duties as- signed them, and the compensation they each receive. Attest, CHARLES CALHOUN, Clerk. P 24 ^0/ D.ofD. 1839.] SENATE -No. 51. 3 To THE Hon. Myron Lawrence, President of the Senate. •Sir, — An order, adopted by the Senate on the 5th inst., hav- ing requested the Secretary of the Board of Education "to furnish the Senate with the amount of expense in- cin-red by said board, or by said Secretary, for printing, from the organization of said board to the present time, with the name of the document, the number printed, the amount wliich each number and kind have cost, desi^nat- ing particuhuiy the object of such document. Also liie expense of distribution, stating the amount paid to the sheriffs of the several counties, and to otiiers who may have received a compensation from the State for the dis- tributing said documents ; "Also all other expenditures of said Board of Educa- tion, or said Secretary, in the performance of the duties as- signed them, and the compensation they each receive ;" — 1 hereby, in compliance with said request, respectfully submit the following statement. The Board of Education was organized on the 29th day of June, 1837. The only expenses " incurred by tfie board, or by its Secretary, for printing, from the organization of the board to the present time," is as follows : For printing 700 circulars, - - $16 00 " " 460 blank tables, - - 5 50 Amounting in the whole to - - ^21 60 4 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, In " designating particnlarly the object'' of the first item above named, I would further state, that the Board, on the day of their organization, issued an "Address to the people of Massachusetts," containing the following clauses : — " It is obvious, however, that, with the limited powers possessed by the Board, the success of its efforts must depend mainly on the general and cordial co-opera- tion of the people ; and it is the object of this address to call upon the friends of education, throughout the Com- monwealth, to come to the aid of the Board in the dis- charge of this duty. It has been judged by the under- signed, that this co-operation can in no way more effectu- ally be given, than by a convention, to be held in each county of the Co!r,monwealth, at some convenient time in the course of the summer and autumn." " It is pro- posed, that the time of holding these meetings should be arranged by the Secretary hereafter, in such manner as best to promote the public convenience, with a view to general attendance, and so as to allow the Secretary to be present at each county convention." " Seasonable notice of the time of holding each county convention will be duly given." The circular, above mentioned, was addressed to the school committees of the several towns, and one of its objects was, to give notice of the time and place of hold- ing the county conventions. It having been made the duty of the Secretary of the Board to " collect information of the actual condition and efficiency of the common schools and other means of popular education," the circu- lar contained several questions pertaining to that subject; and it was from the answers to these questions that inany of the facts were obtained which were embodied in the report of the Secretary to the Board, dated January 1, 1839.] SENATE— No. 51. 5 1838. To obtain those facts was another object of the circulars. The object of the blank tables, — charged at five dollars and fi(ty cents, — was to facilitate the preparation of the " Annual Abstract of the school returns" for 1837. That preparation was a work of great labor, occupying myself and a clerk not less than four weeks. The printing of the tables saved the writing of a hundred letter-paper pages. In regard to both the al-ove items, it is proper to add, that, as there was no specific enactment of the Legisla- ture that such printing should be done, I informed the printers for the State, when I applied to them, that if their bills were not allowed by the committee on accounts, I would pay them myself. Never having been called upon by them, I presume said bills were allowed by the committee. The above two items, amounting to ^21.50, are the only expenses, so far as I know, "incurred by the Board or by its Secretary for printing." The standing laws of the State have required the printing of other documents, in relation to our common schools. Formerly this was all done under the supervis- ion of the Secretary of State. Since the establishment of the Board of Education, a portion of it has been di- rected, by law, to be done under theirs. As the order of the Senate may possibly be construed so as to embrace these items, I will particularize them, according to the best of my knowledge. For many years past, an '* Abstract of the school re- turns" has been annually jjreprired under the direction of the Secretary of State. The act appointing the Board provided, that thereafter, they, instejid of the Secretary 6 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, of State, should "prepare and lay before the Legislature, in a printed form, on or before the second Wednesday in January, annually, an abstract of the school returns." In compliance with this provision of law, the number of seventeen hundred and fifty copies of the abstract, — the sairie number which had been printed in former years, — was prepared by the Secretary of the Board, under its direction, and distributed among the members as in former years. The cost of these was ^804 75. The "object" is presumed to have been to furnish the mem- bers of the Legislature with statistical facts in relation to the system of public instruction, in order that they might be sup|)lied with a basis for intelligent legislation respect- ing the schools. by the law of 1838, ch. 105, §6, the Board were di- rected to prescribe a blank form of a register to be kept in all the town and district schools in the Commonwealth, and the Secretary of State was directed to forward a sufficient number of copies of the same to the school committees of the respective towns. In obedience to this law, the Board prepared a form and the Secretary of State caused twenty thousand copies of the same to be printed and forwarded. The cost of printing was ^430.- 56. In former years, the returns of the school commit- tees had been, in many important particulars, conjecKiral and, of course, inaccurate. The "object" of the register was to supply the several school committees with an ac- curate knowledge of facts, in order that their returns for the "Annual Abstracts" might be a guide and not a de- lusion. By the law of 1838, ch. 159, § 1, it was made the duty of the Secretary of the Board of Education annually to visit each county in the State, for the purpose of at- 1839.] SENATE— No. 51. 7 tending county meetings of the friends of education, and he was required to give " sufficient notice" of these county meetings. For the purpose of giving this notice and of collecting information, as before staled, one thous- and circulars were printed, in the month of July last, and sent to the school committees of the several towns. The cost of printing was ^24.75. The above are all the expenses for printing, so far as 1 know, with which the Board of Education or its Secre- tary have had any connexion. Tiie next clause in the order relates to the " amount paid to the sheriffs of the several counties, and to others who may have received a compensation from the State for the distributing said documents.'' A part of the circulars of 1837 were sent through the hands of the sheriffs. A part of them I sent by mail, paying the postage thereon. The registers and circu- lars of 1838, were sent by the sheriffs. Most of the above, however, were sent with other packages, which it was the duty of the Secretary of State to transmit to the towns. I have been informed that the sheriffs were al- lowed forty cents for the delivery of each separate pack- age in the year 1837, and fifty cents in the year 1838. How, or in what proportions, this charge should be di- vided among the packages sent, I am unable to say. So far as I know, this is the only expense " for the distributing," with which the Board has been in any way connected. There is one fact, however, in regard to the expense of distribution, which in order to prevent any misap- prehension, it may be proper for me to state. At the last anniversary of the American Institute of Instruction, August, 1838, a lecture was delivered by David P. Page, Esq., of Newburyport, ♦* On the Mutual duties of Pa- 8 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, rents and Teachers," which contained so many excellent suggestions, was so eminently practical, and seemed to me so well fitted to do good to all who would read it, that, at my own expense, I caused an edition of three thousand copies to be printed for the purpose of present- ing one to the teacher of each public school in the State. These, I requested the Secretary of State to forward, with other documents, which he was then sending into the several towns. This he kindly consented to do. Pro- bably no additional charge will ever be made, on this account, but as it is possible there may be, I thought it my duty to note the fact. To that part of the " order" which relates to com- pensation, received by " others" besides sheriffs for dis- tributing documents, I reply, that nothing, to my knowl- edge, has ever been so received by any one. The last clause in the " order" relates to " all other expenditures of said Board of Education or said Secre- tary in the performance of the duties assigned them, and the compensation they each receive." As an account of " all expenditures of said Board of Education or said Secretary in the performance of the duties assigned them" is here requested, and as this is connected with an inquiry as to the " compensation they each receive," I infer that it is the object of the Senate to learn the general expenses of the Board and of its Secretary " in the performance of their duties," in order that the same may be compared with their "compensa- tion" or reimbursement. It is obvious, that parts of these expenditures cannot be exactly ascertained. Tak- ing the records of the Board for data, I proceed to state them as nearly as practicable. 1st. As to the "expenditures" of the Board. The 1839.] SENATE— No. 51. 9 Board, or the executive committee of the Board, have held twelve meetings in the city of Boston, since its organiza- tion. For the purpose of attending these meetings, and in visiting different towns in the State in order to deter- mine their relative eligibility as sites for Normal Schools, not less than from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty days of time have been wholly occupied, and the necessary travel has amounted to about four thousand miles. For this amount of their time, nothing, of course, has been charged, as the members of the Board receive no compensation for their personal services. The whole amount received on paid, and due on unpaid warrants for the above travel, for board, postage, or any incidental charges, bringing the accounts down to the present time, is ^358 36. Probably two-thirds of this time and travel were rendered necessary by the new duties, imposed upon the Board at the last session in relation to the establish- ment of Normal Schools. The above, however, does not probably include half the time and services of the Board in the discharge of their duties, for which there must have been " expenditures," but all such services and expenditures have been gratuitous. As one, among many items of additional labor, it may be mentioned, that most of the members of the Board have carefully examined as many as fifty volumes of works in order to decide upon their fitness for a common school library. In the above statement, the time, services, and expenses of the governor and lieutenant governor are not included. Each of them is ex officio a member of the Board, and their services are rendered without charge. 2d. As to the "expenditures" of the Secretary ol the Board, as compared with his " compensation." My duties were specifically prescribed by the 24 1st ch. 2 I 10 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [March, of the statutes of 1837, and the 159th ch. of the statutes of 1838. After accepting the appointment of the Board, I was requested by them to prepare the " Annual Abstract of the School Returns," for 1837. Although this was no part of my duty, yet I gladly undertook, the labor, as I was desirous of having the Abstract in an improved form, of adding some new items to the information it should contain, and of presenting the county aggregates sepa- rately, which had never been done before. It made a document of more than 300 pages, and occupied myself and a clerk at least four weeks. I paid the clerk ^45 out of my own pocket. Neither for my own services in relation to this matter nor for the money paid for clerk- hire have I ever charged any thing or ever expected to. Immediately after my appointment, I began to receive letters from all parts of the State, on various subjects, connected with common school education, and have un- doubtedly received and answered more than a thousand within the last eighteen months. I think my postage bills cannot have been less than ^150. After the law passed for the establishment of Normal Schools, great in- terest was manifested in different parts of the State in re- gard to the location of those schools. This led to cor- respondence with the board, and most of it, was carried on through me. This of course increased both labor and expense. As the law had made it no part of my duty either to perform any service or to incur any expense in regard to Normal Schools, I consulted with some of the members of the Board at their meeting in the last week of last December, and they were of opinion that my ex- penses for postage, stationary, &;c. were a part of the in- cidental expenses of the Board, provided for in the act of 1838, ch. 55. 1839.] SENATE— No. 51. ft I have kept no exact account of *' expenditures " for stationary, but I suppose that for the preparation of the " Abstract" before mentioned, for correspondence, reports, &c. it must have been thirty or forty dollars. Applications having been received by the Board from twelve different places in the State to have one of the Normal Schools established in their respective vicinities, and the Board, deeming it advisable that several of those places should be visited in order to determine their relative eligibility, as before stated, I was appointed on all the committees raised for that purpose. In serving on these committees, I travelled more than three hundred miles, the expense of which was probably $30 more. This was all additional to my travel in visiting the counties as pre- scribed by law. At the meeting of the Board in Decem- ber last, I made the following charges on account of the above expenses, which were allowed by the board, viz. on account of all my postage I charged ^5, for station- ary ^10, and for visiting different places in the State in reference to Normal Schools, ^17, making in the whole $52, or less than one fourth part of what I had in fact expended, exclusive of the ^45 paid for clerk hire, and $50 paid for the edition of the lecture before mentioned, for which no charge was ever expected to be made. My salary from July 1, 1837, to April 21, 1839, was at the rate of ^1000 a year. Since the last named time, it has been at the rate of ^1500 a year. About half this sum is absorbed in travelling and other necessary "expenditures;" the residue is the "compensation" I receive for my whole time and such services as I am able to render. I believe I have now answered each branch of the " order" of the Senate, with the particularity it indica- LibKHKT ur v^uiNUi\c.o ^ 12 BOARD OF EDUCATION. [ 021 526 187 6 ted. In speaking of services, performed at the request of the Board, but not required by law, I wish it to be under- stood, that I have not referred to them for the purpose of objecting in the slightest degree to the labor of those ser- vices, but only for the purpose of distinguishing between the "expenditures,", .which properly belonged to my of- fice, and those which did not ; — and should any thing in this statement seem too personal, as it regards myself, I trust an apology may be found in the fact, that when an inquiry is made of a public officer, respecting expenses, he may have incurred, none but the fullest explanation is likely to be satisfactory. Very respectfully, HORACE MANN, Secretary of the Board of Education, Boston, March Uth, 1839. LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 021 526 187 6