THE COUNTRY SCHOOL 345 



civic and occupational outlook of the farmer of to-morrow. It 

 should be repeated that without knowledge the farmer can not 

 even understand his problems ; much less will he be able to solve 

 them. It is because of the crucial nature of this knowledge 

 problem that the rural school is the determinative institution of 

 rural life. If it fails the farmer all else must assuredly fail 

 him. 



THE COUNTY AS A UNIT OF ADMINISTRATION 1 



A. C. MONAHAN 



WE find four units of organization for the administration of 

 the rural schools in the United States the district, township, 

 magisterial district, and county. The district, or the single dis- 

 trict, as it is sometimes called, is the unit in twenty-one states 

 and in parts of four others. The township is the unit in ten 

 states and in parts of three others. The magisterial district is 

 the unit in two. The county is the unit in eleven states and in 

 part of one other. 



On the whole, the county unit has most to commend it. The 

 territory included in a county is usually small enough for a 

 county board to keep in touch with the entire county, and it is 

 large enough for school districts to be arranged to the best ad- 

 vantage, both for the convenience of the pupils and for economy 

 in management and support. It is the unit of supervision in 

 the great majority of states. For efficiency the supervision and 

 administration must be closely united. This is possible in the 

 best way only when the unit of supervision and the unit of or- 

 ganization are identical. Another consideration in favor of the 

 county unit is the quest ion of support. The county is now the 

 unit in most states for the assessment and collection of taxes, the 

 building and care of roads and bridges, and maintenance of crim- 

 inal and civil courts. To make it the unit for school purposes 

 would do away with local district taxes for education, equalize 

 the tax rate for the county, and distribute Ihe cost of the sup- 

 port of the schools over the entire county, so that equal educa- 



i Adapted from "The Ncod of a Counly I'liif." U. S. Bur. of Ed., Bul- 

 letin No. 30, 1913, pp. 52-54. 



