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RECOMMENDATIONS 
 
 ON 
 
 NEEDED SCHOOL LEGISLATION 
 
 BEING ADVANCE SHEETS FROM THE 
 BIENNIAL REPORT OF 
 
 >. W. D. ROSS, 
 
 Z'-*'-'-*-^'' State-SupeianterMient of Public Instruction. 
 
 DECEMBER, 1914. 
 
 KANSAS STATE PRINTING OFFICE. 
 
 W. C. Austin, State Printer. 
 
 TOPEKA. 1914. 
 
 5-4533 
 
B. of D, 
 
 L6^ 
 
 6^? 
 
 
NEEDED LEGISLATION. 
 
 In a general way the development of free schools has been everywhere 
 coincident with the growth of democracy. Here in America as else- 
 where public education has been an evolution. Pioneer conditions with us 
 have always meant first, homes and a living; then, churches and schools. 
 In Kansas around the cabin and the dugout "on the far horizon," was 
 erected the local school district, and there followed the box car school- 
 house as representing the simplest and cheapest form of architecture. 
 Other settlers came and other districts were formed, irregular in shape, 
 unequal in size, and varying in valuation, but always with the one oblong, 
 cross-lighted type of building. 
 
 The sod house and the ox team have vanished with the Indian and the 
 buffalo. In their place are coming, in numbers unequalled anywhere else 
 in the world, the modern farm home and the automobile. But the rural 
 school of the pioneer lingers with us yet — the last survivor of a by-gone 
 age. "New occasions teach new duties", in time, however, and already 
 there are abundant signs that the god of "Things as they are" will not 
 much longer be able to dictate educational conditions to the boys 'and girls 
 of Kansas. 
 
 Within the past four years Pennsylvania, West Virginia, Ohio and 
 Iowa, realizing that their school laws and systems of school organization 
 had become outgrown and antiquated, have adopted absolutely new school 
 codes prepared and recommended by expert commissions appointed and 
 provided with funds for that purpose. Minnesota and Colorado will to all 
 appearances do so at the coming sessions of their legislatures, while there 
 is strong and growing sentiment in Nebraska for similar action. 
 
 Kansas would do well to follow this example. For the fact that the 
 schools of the past have nobly met the needs of their day and generation 
 is no more evidence that they are good enough now than is the fact that 
 the sickle and the flail hold an honored place in the history of the race 
 sufficient proof that we now have no need of the header and the thresher. 
 
 Legislative provision for a "Better Schools Commission," with proper 
 authority and sufficient means to study our educational needs, to report 
 to the next legislature its recommendations in the form of an entirely 
 new school code would undoubtedly bring better results than can any 
 attempt to "doctor up" existing patch-work laws. And this I most 
 earnestly recommend. 
 
 There are, however, certain imperative needs which should receive im- 
 mediate attention. Among those of first importance are: provision mak- 
 ing possible the use of supplementary books in our schools; a revision of 
 our certificate law; a modification of the system of normal institutes; 
 and the reorganization and strengthening of the state department of 
 public instruction. 
 
 . , (3) 
 
SUPPLEMENTARY BOOKS. 
 
 The situation with reference to supplementary books is at once acvite 
 and absurd. It is hardly thinkable that a great, intelligent, prosperous and 
 progressive state like Kansas should ever have found itself under the 
 necessity of protecting itself from itself. And yet apparently such pro- 
 tection was one of the important purposes of the text-book act of 1897. At 
 all events during the very closing hours of the legislative session of 1913, 
 and after the law had been in operation for more than fifteen years with- 
 out the right to use supplementary books ever having before been brought 
 up for final determination, the supreme court handed down a decision 
 which in the opinion of the attorney-general rendered to this department 
 requires and permits the use of only adopted texts in all our public schools, 
 and prohibits even school boards from buying supplementary books and 
 placing them in their schools for the use of the pupils. 
 
 To put the matter plainly but truthfully this means that thousands of 
 children in this state, as in no other state in the Union, are being denied 
 one of the privileges that ought to be synonymous with free schools every- 
 where, that is the right and the opportunity to have and to use such books 
 as will make school life most attractive and most profitable. Instead of 
 starving our pupils or confining them to a restricted, uniform, and un- 
 varying diet, we should furnish them with mental food that will interest 
 and properly develop their varied and growing young minds. 
 
 Pupils in the country schools should have in their school libraries 
 agricultural readers, geographical readers, historical biographies, nature 
 stories and other books to supplement and illuminate their regular texts as 
 well as to add variety and vitality to the daily routine of work. 
 
 While this is true of our rural districts the need is more imperative 
 still in our cities. In the very nature of things the state texts must be 
 selected, in so far as conditions permit freedom of selection, with the in- 
 terests of all our schools in mind. It is therefore wholly illogical to sup- 
 pose that even if the adopted texts contained the proper amount of ma- 
 terial for pupils in our seven months' country schools with their many 
 classes and short recitation periods, these same books would also contain 
 sufficient matter profitably to employ the time of pupils in our well- 
 organized, well-graded, and well-supervised city schools with their nine 
 months' terms and thirty to forty-five minute study and recitation periods. 
 
 An actual incident will illustrate the true situation graphically. The 
 supreme court decision in the supplementary book case was handed down 
 on a Saturday. The following Monday a little ten-year-old Topeka girl 
 went home from school and in her childish simplicity thinking that court 
 decisions should be rendered on what the law ought to be instead of what 
 it is, said to her father at the dinner table, "Papa, what do you suppose the 
 supreme court has done?" Her father said: "Why, I don't know, what 
 has it done?" "Well, it has just spoiled school," the little girl replied. 
 Then she explained that her class had finished their reader and were in 
 the midst of one of a very interesting series of little "classics" on the 
 industries — this one being on the formation, production and uses of coal — 
 when they had been compelled to quit because the supreme court had said 
 they could not under the law use any books in their reading class except 
 the state adopted reader. 
 
Do the people of the state want their children mentally stunted and 
 dwarfed, do they want them even to fall short of their greatest possibilities 
 on account of lack of proper nourishment when if the law but permitted 
 they could have access to and use of books that are admitted even by 
 foreign critics to be the best, the most beautiful and the least expensive in 
 the world? It is high time to talk less about the cost of books, and to 
 consider more the worth of books. What the people of Kansas want is not 
 poor books and too few of them, but good books and enough; for their 
 children and not their dollars are their first consideration. 
 
 While there never has been the slightest evidence or even any attempt 
 to produce evidence that Kansas school boards and superintendents may 
 not safely be trusted honestly to select and provide supplementary books 
 according to their best judgment based on local needs and conditions, yet 
 if there is need that they be protected from the wiles of the purveyors of 
 books this can be accomplished by restricting their purchasing power to 
 a list of titles approved at a stipulated price for supplementary purposes 
 by the State School Book Commission. Such a restriction would be gladly 
 accepted by the friends of education as the price of relief. 
 
 FREE TEXTBOOKS. 
 
 Since, if education is to be truly free, the means of securing it must 
 everywhere and in all cases be available, not only should school boards be 
 empowered to buy the necessary supplementary books and place them in 
 their school libraries but they should be required to provide out of public 
 funds all textbooks and furnish them for the use of the pupils free of 
 cost, the books of course to be the property of the district. Such a plan 
 would be mo re. economical both in money and in time than is the system 
 of individual ownership ; for on the one hand the same books would serve 
 different pupils in successive years, and on the other hand, all pupils 
 would always be supplied with books. Above all, the tools of learning 
 would then be as free to rich and poor alike as the teacher who directs 
 their use, or the building which houses the users; and our free schools 
 would be free schools indeed. 
 
 CERTIFICATION OF TEACHERS. 
 
 The anomalies in our system of certification are numerous and in- 
 defensible. For instance, two years of high-school training or its 
 equivalent are required for first-grade county certificates. Yet under 
 the system of entrance requirements operating in some of the state 
 educational institutions, two years of secondary credit are given to 
 holders of second-grade county certificates. Thus not only are students 
 enabled in certain cases to shorten by two years the usual minimum 
 time necessary to secure a state certificate, but if they want to teach 
 on a first-grade county certificate in the meantime they can use the same 
 credits as evidence that they have done the required two years of high- 
 school work, and upon them base a claim of eligibility to such a certificate. 
 
 In other words, the holder of a second-grade certificate who could 
 not otherwise possibly secure a certificate of the first grade because of 
 lack of the necessary two years' high-school work, or its equivalent, 
 could in the manner indicated secure two years' credit on a high-school 
 course, remain in the school giving the credit only a week or even a 
 
day and then, on passing the necessary county examination, demand a 
 first-grade certificate on the strength of two years' high-school credit. 
 Such a proceeding, while entirely possible, would be wholly irregular 
 and utterly subversive of the spirit and purpose of the law. 
 
 In the matter of state certificates issued on the basis of graduation 
 from accredited institutions, there exists a discrimination which is 
 both unfair as among the institutions and unjust as among the recipients. 
 
 For instance, certain state institutions are now authorized by law 
 to issue state life certificates good for any grade of work in any of the 
 schools of the state upon the completion of two years of work above the 
 high school. On the other hand, graduates of certain other state and ac- 
 credited institutions can secure state life certificates only upon the com- 
 pletion of four years' work above the high school ; and yet these certificates 
 have no better legal standing and are entitled to no greater official recogni- 
 tion than those secured in one-half the time. 
 
 Obviously, in justice to individuals and institutions as well as in 
 the interest of a more intelligent basis of judgment on the part of em- 
 ployers of teachers, this situation shoujd be remedied. Indeed the 
 favored institutions themselves realize this necessity and will no doubt 
 be glad to cooperate in any reasonable plan of adjustment. 
 
 The solution of the matter is simple. All regular state life certificates 
 should be placed upon the same plane by being based upon four years 
 of work above the high school. Then state certificates based upon less 
 than this amount of work should either be limited as to time and not 
 made renewable into life certificates until the necessary additional work 
 had been done, or else they should be limited to work in the elementary 
 schools or in special branches. 
 
 These examples are sufficient to illustrate the lack of uniformity in 
 requirement and practice among our different certificating authorities, 
 and to show the need of a thorough revision and systematization of our 
 certificating system in this particular. But it is weak in other particu- 
 lars also. 
 
 There is, for instance, no differetiation either as to the kinds of schools 
 in which different classes of certificates may be legally used, or as to 
 the particular subjects the holders of any given kind of a certificate are 
 legally authorized to teach. To illustrate: a graduate of Harvard or 
 Yale coming to Kansas to teacla would, before he could teach in any 
 except our county high schools, by law be under the necessity of. passing 
 our state examination which would give him the right to teach anything 
 anywhere in the state; or else he would have to take the county examina- 
 tion and teach on a third-grade certificate, because on his first applica- 
 tion that is the highest grade of county certificate he could receive. 
 On the other hand, any holder of a third-grade county certificate, whether 
 he had ever even attended high school, could legally teach in any one of 
 more than two hundred of our high schools, if he could find a board 
 which, for personal, economical or other reasons, would hire him. 
 
 In addition to all this our state certificates mean nothing to boards 
 of education in the way of information as to what subjects the holders 
 are especially prepared to teach. In our smaller high schools it is neces- 
 sary that each teacher handle two or three different lines of work. And 
 
it so happens that school boards often employ a Latin teacher, for ex- 
 ample, and then assign to her additional classes in history and botany, 
 when, under the elective system prevailing now in our higher institutions, 
 she has had' no preparation whatever for work in the two latter subjects. 
 A differentiation of certificates as to subjects or provision for special 
 high-school certificates in different lines of work would not only obviate 
 this situation, but would also give more satisfactory information to boards 
 seeking highly specialized teachers for only one line of work; in short, 
 would be much more intelligent and intelligible in every way. 
 
 In addition to this there should be provision for special certificates 
 covering only highly specialized subjects such as manual training, do- 
 mestic science and art, music, and commercial branches which would be 
 legal qualification to teach these subjects anywhere in the state. 
 
 A thorough and scientific revision of our entire certification system 
 along the lines indicated and in the interest of better and higher pro- 
 fessional standards is therefore most urgently recommended. 
 
 NORMAL INSTITUTES. 
 
 Our present system of normal institutes filled a distinct and pressing 
 need existing at the time the system was created — that of furnishing 
 to all prospective teachers some opportunity for academic training 
 beyond that offered by the eighth grade. And it has served its purpose 
 creditably. But the changes of thirty-five years have largely put an 
 end to its usefulness in its present form. The enormous multiplication 
 of high schools, the increase in number of state normal schools, the in- 
 auguration of summer schools, and the great growth in attendance at all 
 our higher institutions of learning have at once made such academic 
 training as can be acquired in our institutes entirely inadequate for 
 the successful and progressive teacher, and at the same time made 
 additional training accessible to all who have the energy and ambition 
 to seek it. 
 
 But we do have need for a greater degree of professional training. 
 It is therefore recommended that the normal institute law be so amended 
 that county superintendents shall be given the option of having a one 
 week's professional and inspirational institute, or the present four weeks' 
 academic institute according as in their judgment, the one or the other 
 will best suit local needs and conditions. Every other state save Kansas 
 has abandoned our present form of institute, but since there may yet 
 be some counties in the state which would for the present still have 
 their interests best served by the four weeks' institute it would seem 
 that an option is desirable. But even so, the fact that teachers are 
 securing their training in high schools, normal schools and various 
 summer schools in such increasing numbers, renders it imperative, since 
 the income depends in large part upon the fees, that some provision be 
 made for additional funds to meet the necessary expenses of the summer 
 institutes. And this, too, is therefore urged. 
 
 REORGANIZATION OF STATE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The state department of public instruction should not be merely a 
 clerical clearing house. It should be a real constructive agency in the 
 development of the educational system of the state. This requires that 
 there shall be time for thoughtful analyses of problems involved and for 
 
clear presentation of the means of solution that may be proposed. Plans 
 must be perfected, explanations must be presented, results must be 
 predicted; in short, ways and means and ends must be thought out and 
 pointed out from the vantage point of a view of the entire field if the 
 department is to fulfill its function properly and serve the state as it 
 should. To this end there should be means of direct contact and com- 
 munication between the department and every educational activity in 
 the state. In other words, the state, department should be in reality 
 what it is in theory and what the constitution says it shall be — the head 
 of all the educational interests of the state. This means that there must 
 be in it both adequate time for reflection and ample means of activity. 
 Both are lacking. The office force provided, including the superintendent, 
 are now compelled to put in their entire time answering letters, keeping 
 the records and doing the merely routine work of the office. Indeed, as 
 conditions are at present it is utterly impossible properly to perform some 
 of the duties already imposed by law to say nothing of engaging in 
 certain other educational activities with which the department should 
 be charged and which can be properly carried on by no other agency. 
 
 For instance, as already pointed out, the statutes require that appli- 
 cants for first- and second-grade county certificates shall have had two and 
 one years' work, respectively, in some high school accredited by the 
 State Board of Education of which the state superintendent is the ex- 
 ecutive head. Yet the Board has not the slightest means of actually 
 satisfying itself as to the quality of the work which it imist recognize 
 unless it would block the wheels of our educational machinery entirely. 
 Again the law requires that the State Board, through the state de- 
 partment, issue state certificates to all graduates from the education 
 courses of accredited institutions which require for admission graduation 
 from a four-year high-school course approved by the Board. But under 
 existing conditions such approval must be based on a paper showing 
 only. We have neither the help nor the money actually to investigate 
 the work. 
 
 Most indefensible of all is the fact that the department through the 
 State Board is charged with the expenditure each year of $125,000 in 
 state aid to high schools for work in normal training, agriculture and 
 domestic science, and yet is given absolutely no means of determining 
 whether they are meeting the requirements in such a way as to entitle 
 them to the money. In fact the Board is positively required to make the 
 regulations governing this work, and the apportionment of money for it, 
 and then is specifically denied the means of making any investigations 
 to see that the requirements are complied with. Kansas is offering this 
 work more extensively than any other state in the Union; yet every other 
 state offering it at all has from one to three supervisors for it connected 
 with the state department. Kansas has none. 
 
 As a matter of fact the standardization of high schools for college 
 entrance requirements, for certificating privileges, for state aid and for 
 all other purposes should be under the control of the State Board of 
 Education. And no other agency should be permitted to attempt it. 
 
 The reasons for this are obvious. Such a plan would be more syste- 
 matic; it would be more uniform; it would be more economical; it would 
 
be more just; and it would be more effective than any system of partial 
 or divided supervision could possibly be. Certainly much more so than 
 our present system or lack of system is. 
 
 It would be more systematic because coming from a single source of 
 authority it would look upon all schools from the same view point and 
 with the same ends in mind. It would have a scope and a continuity 
 which would make constructive contrasts, comparisons and suggestions 
 possible in all classes of schools and for all kinds of work. 
 
 It would be more uniform because when directed by a single agency it 
 would be able to establish and enforce standards of excellence in a manner 
 not possible where the inspection is irregular, desultory and divided; to 
 say nothing of where there is none at all. 
 
 It would be more economical because there would be no duplication, no 
 lost motion and all the work of all the schools would be subject to inspec- 
 tion all the time. And under such an arrangement two supervisors would 
 be sufficient, whereas this year there have been five inspectors in the field 
 constantly, from the different state institutions. 
 
 It may be argued that various members of the faculties have been 
 doing this work, and that when all the high schools have been visited they 
 will resume their regular duties and no inspection will be made again 
 for a year or two. But this means that higher salaries are being paid 
 for this work than it would be necesary to pay satisfactory regular in- 
 spectors, that those who are doing it are doing it only as a "side issue" 
 without the interest and ambition which one feels for his permanent occu- 
 pation, while they are at the same time not doing the work for the state 
 which they are employed, advertised and especially fitted to do. 
 
 Moreover, inspection that is continuous and in which there is the 
 possibility that a school may be visited at any time is much more re- 
 spected and salutary than when it is spasmodic and certain to be made 
 only at long intervals. 
 
 In addition to this the present inspection has no authority in law to 
 standardize schools for the purpose of the State Board, or for any other 
 purpose for that matter. The most that it can possibly do is to establish 
 entrance relations between the state institutions and the high schools; and 
 this could equally well be done by the State Board of which the Chancellor 
 of the University, the President of the State Agricultural Collage, and the 
 President of the State Normal School are ex officio members. 
 
 And this brings up the next point in our consideration; that of fair- 
 ness. As just indicated, by virtue of their three places on the State Board 
 the state institutions would be amply protected in their standards and 
 would be assured of absolutely fair treatment among themselves. On the 
 other hand, all opportunity for rivalry, self advertising of individual in- 
 stitutions, and undue advantage in the locating of graduates in teaching 
 positions through information gathered by the inspectors would be 
 eliminated. 
 
 On the other hand, by the appointment of a representative of the de- 
 nominational schools on the State Board, these institutions, in which are 
 being educated as many of our high-school graduates as in our state in- 
 stitutions, could be guaranteed a voice in the establishing and maintaining 
 of college entrance requirements and be assured that they would not be 
 
10 
 
 placed at disadvantage by publicity avenues enjoyed by the state institu- 
 tions under the guise of inspection wholly under their control. 
 
 Through the further fact that the state superintendent and the two 
 remaining appointive members of the Board would in the very nature of 
 things represent the general public-school interests of the state, high- 
 school authorities themselves and the public in general would be assured 
 of some consideration and voice in the determining and enforcing of 
 standards — -a thing which has been too much overlooked in the past; for 
 after all the high school belongs to the people and not to the colleges. 
 
 Finally, then, high-school standardization under the State Board of 
 Education would be more effective than it now is, or than it can possibly 
 be under any other plan, for all the reasons enumerated. 
 
 I therefore recommend that the State Board of Education be provided 
 with two high-school supervisors who shall have charge of the standardiza- 
 tion of high schools for agriculture, domestic science, manual training, 
 normal training, college entrance, etc.; and that the expenditure of no 
 other state funds for high-school-inspection purposes be permitted. 
 
 STANDARDIZATION OP RURAL SCHOOLS. 
 
 A new educational activity in which the state department should be 
 authorized and enabled to engage is the standardization of rural schools. 
 By this term is meant a definition of what it takes to make a standard 
 country school, and some provision whereby specific recognition can be 
 given such schools. No one thing has done more to bring about the high- 
 school development in this state than has the system of accrediting them 
 by the State University and the State Department of Public Instruction, 
 divided, expensive and unsystematic as it has been. As soon as people got 
 a clear idea of what it took to make an accredited high school they insisted 
 on having it. And when one town got its high school recognized and a 
 neighboring town failed to do so, the neighboring town began to take 
 pains to find out where the trouble was and to see that it was remedied. 
 
 Just so, when the people of a backward district come to learn what it 
 takes in the way of grade of certificate, building and grounds, system of 
 heating and ventilation, library, globe, maps and other equipment to make 
 a standard school, and especially when they find their neighbors in the next 
 district have a school coming within this definition they too will insist on 
 having one. If to the knowledge of the requirements and to the spirit 
 of neighborhood pride can be added a small bonus from the state, the re- 
 sults will be more striking still. 
 
 The system of rural-school standardization has been worked out more 
 satisfactorily and more completely in Illinois than anywhere else. There 
 the state recognizes two classes of country schools, "Standard" and 
 "Superior." The requirements for each class are set forth in a pamphlet 
 published by the State Department of Public Instruction, and two rural 
 school supervisors connected with the department spend their entire time 
 conferring with county superintendents, visiting schools with them, and 
 through them passing upon the claims of schools asking for approval. 
 Each school receiving recognition is furnished by the state superintendent, 
 through the county superintendent with a metal name plate bearing the 
 legend "Standard School" or "Superior School," as the case may be, and 
 this plate is placed above the front door of the schoolhouse. 
 
11 
 
 Except consolidation nothing would do so much to improve general 
 educational conditions in the country as rural-school standardization. 
 For through it people would come to know what is really necessary for a 
 school of at least fair efficiency, would be encouraged to endeavor to at- 
 tain such a standard and on succeeding would be rewarded by proper 
 official recognition as well as by their own feeling of community pride. 
 
 A "standardization" map of Illinois shows that the movement is con- 
 tagious, and that it is spreading most rapidly in localities where its re- 
 sults are best known. Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and other states in ad- 
 dition to Illinois have already inaugurated it with the most gratifying 
 results. Much is being said about the improvement of our rural schools. 
 Here is a thoroughly practical and simple way to bring improvement about. 
 Shall we take advantage of it? 
 
 To the end that we may I recommend that at least one and preferably 
 two rural-school supervisors in connection with the state department be 
 provided for and that a sufficient appropriation in addition be made to 
 cover the expense of the necessary name plates if not to provide a small 
 bonus annually to each school maintaining the accredited standard. The 
 state is spending wisely large sums each year on its higher institutions of 
 learning and on its secondary schools. Why not spend at least a small 
 fraction of the same amount in encouragement and aid for those schools 
 in which a large per cent of our boys and girls get the only educational 
 training they ever receive? 
 
 There are schools in Kansas — all too many of them — that do not have 
 •even a dictionary or a globe, to say nothing of maps, a library or other 
 equipment. A teacher can not work without tools any more than can a 
 carpenter or a blacksmith. The very least that a great, wealthy state 
 like Kansas, with twice as much invested in automobiles as she has in 
 schools, can do is to see that eventually all her schools are standard schools. 
 
 PUBLICATIONS. 
 
 Another service which the department should be able to render more 
 effectively lies in formulating and revising courses of study and the 
 preparation of directions and hand books on plans and methods of pre- 
 senting the various subjects. This work requires time, expert knowledge, 
 and technical skill acquired by wide observation and varied experience. 
 The supervisors already referred to if provided for could devote the time 
 intervening between school sessions to work of this character with great 
 advantage to the teachers of the state and corresponding benefit to the 
 work of the schools in which they teach. 
 
 STRENGTHENING OF THE STATE DEPARTMENT. 
 
 The strengthening of the state department in the manner indicated is 
 a matter of vital concern to the educational progress of the state. Nor 
 would it represent anything even approaching the exceptional or the ex- 
 travagant. Indeed it would only be putting Kansas in the same class with 
 many other states far inferior to her in school population, teaching force 
 and wealth. For example with practically the same number of pupils 
 and teachers as Kansas, California has fifteen members in its state de- 
 partment of education with an appropriation annually of $61,000; Kansas 
 
12 
 
 has a state department of six members with an annual appropriation of 
 $9,800. Illinois has a department of twelve members with an annual 
 budget of $38,400; Indiana twelve members with a budget of $25,800; 
 Kentucky thirteen members, and $25,000. Louisiana with but seven thou- 
 sand teachers has a state department of twelve members with an allowance 
 of $28,000 ; Maine a department of eleven members with an annual budget 
 of $20,100; Massachusetts with approximately the same number of both 
 pupils and teachers as Kansas has twenty-three members in its department 
 of education with an allowance of $59,000 a year. Kansas, let it be re- 
 peated, has six members in its department at an annual total expense of 
 $9800. Minnesota, also with practically the same number of pupils and 
 teachers as we, has sixteen members in her state department with a budget 
 of $50,000; Missouri nine and $24,650 respectively; Virginia fourteen and 
 $43,892; while even West Virginia with only a few over half our number 
 of teachers and pupils has just twice the number of members in its state 
 department that we have and spends on it four times as much. 
 
 At its 1914 meeting the State Teachers' Association passed among 
 others the following resolution : 
 
 Resolved, That we favor the reorganization and the strengthening^ 
 of the state department of education, so as to permit the administra- 
 tion of the public school system of our state in a manner most service- 
 able to the people generally and most satisfactory to those who are en- 
 gaged in the work of education; such a reorganization to include — 
 
 First. The payment to the state superintendent of public instruct- 
 tion and his assistants salaries corresponding to the salaries paid to 
 similar officers in other states and equal to the salaries of the best paid 
 state officers in this state and commensurate with the character of the 
 duties imposed and the qualifications required. 
 
 Second. The provision of adequate facilities for the performance of 
 the duties now imposed by law upon the state superintendent of public 
 instruction and the State Board of Education. 
 
 Third. The extension of the functions of the state department of 
 education so as to enable it to establish more direct and helpful rela- 
 tions with schools of every grade, to fix standards of excellence in all 
 matters relating to administration and instruction in rural schools^ 
 graded schools, and high schools, and particularly in those important, 
 features which belong to vocational and industrial training, and to ac- 
 credit those schools which maintain the specified standard. 
 
 Fourth. The employment of a sufficient number of thoroughly quali- 
 fied experts in the several departments of rural schools, graded schools, 
 high schools, and vocational and industrial training to give advice and 
 assistance in the development of all our schools, so that Kansas may 
 rank higher than twenty-fourth among the states. 
 
 The reasonableness and force of all these recommendations will now 
 have been recognized from what has already been said except that with 
 reference to salaries. But the one on this point is no less appropriate 
 than the others. The duties of the department require not only the 
 usual clerical and administrative abilities necessary for the conduct of 
 the ordinary departments of state government but they require for their 
 proper administration a high degree of technical and professional knowl- 
 edge and skill as well. Yet the attorney-general whose office is the only 
 other one requiring a similar combination receives $4000 per year. The 
 state treasurer in salary and fees gets more than $4500 and the state- 
 
13 
 
 auditor over $3000, while the state superintendent receives $2500. And 
 in the matter of the salary of the assistant state superintendent, also, 
 technical training and professional ability have apparently been dis- 
 criminated against. He receives $1600 while the two assistants to the 
 attorney-general get $3000 each, the secretary of the State Board of 
 Educational Administration $3000, assistant secretary of the Board 
 of Health $2400, assistant secretary of the Board of Agriculture $2000, 
 assistant supreme court reporter $2000, two assistant bank commissioners 
 $2000 each, two assistant state treasurers $1800 each, assistant sec- 
 retary of state $1800, and assistant state auditor $1800. None of these 
 is receiving too much; but how can the difference be justified? Is it on 
 the ground that the administration of education is a minor considera- 
 tion in Kansas? If not, the discrimination should be ended and the 
 educational offices be given the recognition their importance and re- 
 quirements deserve. 
 
 And here again some comparisons will serve to show how far this 
 is from being an unreasonable recommendation; indeed will prove that it 
 is entirely modest and justifiable. 
 
 New Jersey, for instance, pays her state superintendent $10,000 and 
 the assistant $4500; Illinois, $7500 and $4000 respectively; California, 
 $5000 and $4000; Indiana, $5000 and $4250; Louisiana, $5000 and $3000; 
 Wisconsin, $5000 and $4000; Minnesota, $4500 and $3000; Kentucky, $4000 
 and $3600; Iowa, $4000 and $2500; West Virginia, $4000 and $2500; 
 Tennessee, $3000 and $2500 ; Missouri, $3000 and $2400. In fact Kansas 
 Tanks forty-second among the states in the Union in the salaries of her 
 chief school officer and his assistant. The teachers of the state have 
 ■unanimously asked a fitting adjustment; the importance and dignity of 
 the work warrant it and I urgently recommend it without regard to 
 my personal interests since no change that might be made could affect 
 the salary during the term upon which I am about to enter. 
 
 "better schools commission." 
 
 While the immediate modifications of our school laws and educa- 
 tional policy herein recommended will mean much for progress, they will 
 not accomplish the vital and far-reaching reforms that must come be- 
 fore our school system will be placed upon the plane which twentieth 
 century conditions demand. 
 
 This can be brought about, as already pointed out, only by a complete 
 and thorough codification of all our school laws, or, rather, by the adop- 
 tion of an entirely new school code. Obsolete sections of our present 
 laws should be repealed, conflicting provisions should be harmonized, 
 and many chapters should be entirely rewritten in keeping with the 
 spirit of modern educational thought and the needs of a new day. 
 
 I recognize that such a consummation, with its possibilities of sweep- 
 ing change can and should come only after the most thorough investi- 
 gation and study by, and upon the recommendaton of, representatives of 
 all the various interests concerned. To that end the "Better Schools 
 Commission" already proposed for the above purpose should consist of 
 at least nine members, four of them school people representing the dif- 
 
14 
 
 ferent phases of education, two of them farmers representing country- 
 needs, two of them business men representing city conditions and one of 
 them a lawyer to give advice and suggestions on legal points. 
 
 This commission should be provided with an appropriation of $10,000, 
 as was done in Ohio three years ago, or so much thereof as may be 
 necessary to pay the actual necessary expenses incurred in pursuing its 
 investigations, compiling its data and formulating its report in the form 
 of a new school code to be recommended to the next legislature. 
 
 Among the matters which should engage the attention and employ 
 the activities of the Commission are : 
 
 First. A comparative study of school administration in other states; 
 especially in those with new school codes. 
 
 Second. A survey of Kansas schools, to learn defects and means of 
 correcting them. 
 
 Third. The question of a larger unit of rural school organization with 
 particular reference to the equalization of taxation. 
 
 Fourth. A readjustment and an extension of provisions for free high- 
 school tuition. 
 
 Fifth. Encouragement of consolidation. 
 
 Sixth. Rural high schools. 
 
 Seventh. Extension of industrial training. 
 
 Eighth. Change in length of term and manner of election of state and 
 county superintendent. 
 
 Ninth. Longer tenure and pensions for teachers. 
 
 Tenth. Relation of the higher institutions to the common and high 
 schools of the state. 
 
 Eleventh. School sanitation and health supervision. 
 
 Twelfth. Regulations as to plans and specifications for buildings. 
 
 A thorough consideration of these problems, as indicated, by a capable 
 high-minded commission would mean their ultimate, and I believe speedy, 
 solution. Their solution would mean that Kansas could face the political, 
 social and economic conditions of the future with absolute confidence. 
 The legislature that makes it possible will have done the greatest service 
 to the state of any legislature in its history. May the legislature of 
 1915 be that legislature. 
 
 n 
 
Makers 
 
 Syracuse, N. Y. 
 PAL JAN. 21, 1908 
 
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