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SCIENCE 



[N. S. Vol. XLV. No. 1164 



school board members or city officials. It 

 is along these lines that we to-day encoun- 

 ter the greatest obstacle to successful edu- 

 cational administration in our cities. Wliile 

 it would be easy to enumerate a dozen 

 such, I will content myself with a mention 

 of the three which seem to me to be the 

 most important obstacles to intelligent edu- 

 cational progress in the administration of 

 our city school systems. 



The first of such obstacles I would enu- 

 merate arises where the school superin- 

 tendency for the city has been made an 

 integral part of the government of the city. 

 The ordinary lawyer, city official or poli- 

 tician finds it hard to understand why stu- 

 dents of educational administration object 

 to the apparently perfectly logical position 

 of the schools as a part of the city govern- 

 mental organization. They regard the 

 school service as on a plane of practical 

 equality with other forms of municipal 

 service, and would place it on the same 

 level as the other city patronage depart- 

 ments of fire, parks, police, streets and 

 public work. Instead, the school is and 

 ought to be regarded as a creation of the 

 state, ranking with the home and the 

 church as an institution for the advance- 

 ment of the public welfare by the training 

 of the next generation of citizens, and the 

 state must see that it is not reduced to local 

 patronage ends. These other departments 

 represent a municipal corporation, erected 

 to carry out municipal ends ; the school is a 

 state corporation to carry out a great state 

 purpose. The experience of our Amer- 

 ican cities has shown clearly that efficient 

 school administration is promoted by the 

 complete divorce of city government and 

 school control. To make a school board de- 

 pendent upon the city government for di- 

 rection and finance, and subject it to the 

 annual scramble for city funds, is to op- 

 pose a serious obstacle to proper educa- 

 tional progress and to subordinate the edu- 



cation of the children in the city to the 

 exigencies of city government. As the di- 

 rectors of a state corporation, representing 

 the most important interest of every com- 

 munity, the school board should be free to 

 carry on its work and, within certain lim- 

 its set by state law, to levy the necessary 

 taxes, free from any interference by the 

 mayor, council, or other city officials. 



The second obstacle to proper educa- 

 tional progress in city school administra- 

 tion which I would enumerate is the con- 

 fusion of functions and responsibilities as 

 between the school board, on the one hand, 

 and the executive officers which the board 

 employs to direct the work of the schools, 

 on the other. Such a confusion arises in 

 part as a result of the rapid evolution of 

 cities from school districts and villages, the 

 tendency being to retain functions once 

 exercised, and in part from a lack of any 

 clear understanding, on the part of the 

 representatives of the public, as to what 

 they are elected to do. 



Our laws quite generally give all legal 

 authority to the school board. Only in a 

 few recently reorganized cities operating 

 under special charter does the superintend- 

 ent of schools have any definite powers and 

 responsibilities. Usually the board has 

 everything, and the superintendent only 

 what the board sees fit to grant him. If 

 the board likes him and trusts him they 

 may grant him wide latitude; if they do 

 not they may take from him practically 

 every power that is vital to the successful 

 administration of a system of schools. 

 Such cases have been so frequent in recent 

 years as to preclude the necessity of men- 

 tioning them here. School boards in their 

 ignorance or because of pique frequently 

 harass a good superintendent; put the 

 whole city school system into a state of un- 

 easiness and dissatisfaction; and eventu- 

 ally drive the superintendent from office 

 because he has tried to prevent the schools 



