EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 



255 



and the Peace party, whose candidate was 

 General Julio Saenz. 



The contest, however, though conducted 

 peacefully and with the greatest fairness, soon 

 proved to be an unequal one ; Dr. Borrero was 

 elected by a vast majority of votes in all the 

 provinces, and took the oath of office and pos- 

 session of the presidential chair on December 

 8th. 



EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. 

 The state of education in this whole country, 

 with all the principal facts brought together 

 under one view, and as complete as it has been 

 possible thus far to make it, has been presented 

 in the last report of the Commissioner of Edu- 

 cation at Washington. It forms a volume of 

 935 octavo pages, and is made up in the year 

 1875, and contains the facts for 1874. Educa- 

 tion and the general effect of the public-school 

 system is now the great topic of public in- 

 terest, and in examining a summary of these 

 details it should be remembered that they 

 are not wholly complete. One or two States 

 and Territories have failed to make returns, 

 so that the aggregates are somewhat short 

 of entire correctness. The Commissioner re- 

 marks : 



_That education is unworthy of the name which 

 disregards science. Not only are the knowledge and 

 practice of scientific methods of culture essential, 

 but all the administrative work of the educator must 

 be brought to the test of science and practice. 

 Equally necessary is it that all facts and statistics 

 should be properly grouped and recorded, all meth- 

 ods and systems scrutinized and compared, and 

 all the fruits of experience garnered for future in- 

 struction. _ These give, when understood, the science 

 of education. In the universal adoption of this 

 method will be found the remedy for the defects in 

 educational systems now everywhere the subject of 

 complaint. To reach and apply it, observations and 

 records must be accurate, complete. 



A summary of the details then proceeds as 

 follows : 



STATE AND TERRITORIAL REPORTS. 



All the States and Territories are. able now to re- 

 port their school population, and the increase for the 

 year is 416,125. This increase becomes apparent 

 only in those States which annually enumerate a 

 school population, and not those which unfortunate- 

 ly use for each decade the returns of the United 

 States census. Four States (one less than in 1873) 

 cannot report the number enrolled in the public 

 schools, and yet there will be noticed an increased 

 enrollment of 164,885. Only thirty States can report 

 the number in daily attendance (one less than in 

 1373), and yet an increase of 321,825 is reported. 

 Thirty-five out of thirty-seven States, and eight out 

 of eleven Territories, report the number of teachers. 

 The increase exclusive of 148 from two Territories 

 not reporting last year is 24,223. Thirty-seven 

 States and eleven Territories report the public-school 

 income, which shows an increase for the year of 

 $1,232,656 ; but only thirty-five States and nine Ter- 

 ritories can show their school expenditures. 



EXPENDITURE FOR PUBHO SCHOOLS. 



Massachusetts heads the list with an expenditure 

 per capita of school enumeration of $14.70 ; of pupils 

 enrolled in public schools of $14.48. The remain- 

 ing States report the following : 



_ The Diversity of School Age. If each State fur- 

 nished by accurate census the number and average 

 attendance of children between 6 and 16 (the usual 

 limits of school age), most valuable comparative 

 lessons could be drawn. Ohio provides by law for 

 such an enumeration, and in the last report of her 

 School Commissioner the number of school popula- 

 tion, 6 to 21, was given as 985,947, while the num- 

 ber between 6 and 16 was 737,272, being about 75 

 per cent, of the legal school population. 



The legal school age in the several States and 

 Territories Is: In Connecticut and Utah, 4-6 ; Ore- 

 gon and Wisconsin, 4-20 ; Maine, New Hampshire, 

 Montana, and Washington, 4-21 ; Massachusetts and 

 Ehode Island, 5-15 ; California, 5-17 ; New Jersey, 

 5-18 ; Michigan, Vermont, and Wyoming, 5-20 ; 

 Alabama, Arkansas, Delaware, Iowa, Kansas, Min- 

 nesota, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, 

 Virginia, Colorado 2 Dakota, and Idaho, 5-21 ; South 

 Carolina and Indian Territory, 6-16 ; District of 

 Columbia, G-17 ; Georgia, Nevada, Tennessee, and 

 Texas, 6-18 ; Kentucky, 6-20 Florida, Illinois, In- 

 diana, Louisiana, Maryland, North Carolina, Ohio, 

 Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Arizona, 6-21. 



NEW ENGLAND STATES. 



Maine, without the stimulus of an influx of popu- 

 lation, shows an increase of oniy 40 in children of 

 school age during the year ; but the enrollment in 

 public summer schools was 5,708 in advance of 1873, 

 and the average attendance in the schools 4,930 in 

 advance. The increase in the public-school income 

 was $223,178 ; in expenditure, $167,042 ; in the num- 

 ber of schoolhouses, 14 ; in the value of school- 

 property, $104,075. The normal schools have trained 

 during the year 587 pupils, and 16? towns and cities, 

 availing themselves of the provisions of a recent act, 

 have established that number of additional free high- 

 schools, imparting, without charge, to 14,828 stu- 

 dents good secondary training. The State College 

 had, at the close of 1874, 121 students ; other col- 

 leges, 355 ; professional schools, 145. 



New Hampshire reports an increase of 6 in the num- 

 ber of schoolhouses, but a decrease of 696 in the 

 number of scholars registered ; though the number 

 from 4 to 14 years of age not attending any school 

 was brought down from 3,680 in 1873 to 2,593 in 1874. 

 There is a decrease of 45 in the number of male 



