Organizing a State School System for Effective Service

Abstract

As I view the question, a state school system should meet two requirements. First, it should lead in the work of education in the state. Local school officials and teachers should look to the state department of education for inspiration, advice, and correct methods of procedure in matters of supervision and instruction. Second, functions of a distinctly state nature should be placed in the hands of the state department of education. Some of these duties are: making courses of study, adopting textbooks, certificating teachers, controlling the higher state educational institutions, fixing the educational and professional standards of superintendents and teachers, approving schoolhouse plans, taking the initiative in educational legislation, and such other functions as may be required to guarantee the wise expenditure of all school funds and the providing of good schools for all of the children. There should be a small state board of education, the members holding office for long, overlapping terms. They should be selected from districts, not from the state at large, in order that all parts of the state may feel that they have representation on the board. The board members should be appointed by the governor, not elected by the people. This view is based, not on any lack of confidence in the judgment of the voters, but on the practical fact that public-spirited men are slow to offer themselves as candidates in large territories for honorary positions. The state board of education in Louisiana is partly appointive and partly elective. While the elective members are, fortunately, among the best of our citizens, I still adhere to the opinion that our machinery would be better if all of the members were appointive. The state board of education should be the only board with state functions. It should have general control of the elementary