356 RURAL MICHIGAN 



quirements or the character of the school work therein 

 provided.^ 



Under the leadership of the department of public 

 instruction of the State, the legislature of 1921 

 enacted a series of laws, some of which directly bear 

 on the rural schools. A considerable number of 

 township unit school districts had been organized- 

 by special acts of the legislature at a time when local 

 loffislation was common and constitutional. All such 

 districts were brought under the general law in 1921. 

 The township unit law was clarified and simplified. 

 The amended consolidated rural school law increased 

 State aid to $1,000 a school, thus abolishing the dis- 

 tinction between Class A and Class B, while $400 a 

 vehicle were allowed for the transportation of pupils. 

 School districts were permitted to erect teacherages 

 for the housing of school teachers, a welcomed inno- 

 vation, especially in sections in which housing con- 

 ditions are inadequate and unsatisfactory. Districts 

 Avhich lack a high-school are required to pay the tui- 

 tion of school pupils to a neigliboring high-school 

 up to $60 a year. A minimum term of nine months 

 -in all schools of the State is now required by law. 

 School officers are empowered to levy taxes for the 

 special purpose of putting school-houses in safe and 

 sanitary condition. By 1925, all persons undertak- 

 ing to teach in Michigan must have at least one 

 year of professional training above the four-year 

 high-school course. Private and parochial schools 



^ INIich. State Teachers' Assoc, Quarterly Review, Jan., 

 1921, 11. 



