624 



PENNSYLVANIA. 



ming County. The question of compulsory 

 education was raised in the Legislature of 1871, 

 and discussed, by those interested in the 

 schools, with considerable warmth. A bill was 

 proposed requiring the attendance at school, 

 during six months of the year, of all children 

 between the ages of six and fourteen years. 

 It was not passed. The Superintendent of 

 Schools, in his annual report, urges that the 

 power to appoint the superintendent be taken 

 from the Governor, and conferred upon a board 



consisting of the Governor, one person se- 

 lected by the State Teachers' Association, one 

 by a convention of superintendents, one by a 

 meeting of the principals of the State normal 

 schools, and one by a meeting of the presi- 

 dents of the colleges, the object being to re- 

 move the office from the influence of politics. 

 Under an act of the last Legislature, the State 

 Superintendent of Schools took control of the 

 soldiers' orphans' schools of the Common- 

 wealth. 



CENSUS OF 1870. 



