to support the schools, fix minimum salaries and qualifications for teachers, and minimum term for the schools. The levy recommended by the board should be made by the county commissioners. The money raised by the levy, together with the State fund, should be expended by the county board according to the needs of the individual schools after dividing (on the basis of the number of teachers employed and the aggregate attendance) between the independent cities and the rest of the county as a single district (see section on school revenue). District organizations should be retained, but the county board should have power to change the district lines and to divide or consolidate districts in their discretion. Local trustees should be elected in each district, as at present, to act as custodians of the school buildings, to make recommendations to the county board relative to the school, and to act as agents of the county board as may be required. The local districts should furnish school buildings and for this purpose be allowed to tax themselves or to issue bonds as at present. They should also be allowed to levy taxes for the purpose of employing special teachers, in addition to those employed by the county, or take other progressive steps for the improvement of the schools in the district. This is practically the system suggested by the committee on rural schools of the Colorado State Teachers' Association submitted to the legislature in 1915 for action, under the title "House bill No. 243; a bill for an act in relation to public education," known as the "County unit bill.”

The county boards of education should replace the present county high school boards and assume the entire management of the county high schools, establishing branches so that high-school education may be within reach of all prospective high-school pupils in the county. The present union high-school districts should be made elementary school districts wherever feasible. The union high schools will then become district high schools. If such consolidation is impracticable, the present union high schools should become branches of regular county high schools.

(7) THE COUNTY SUPERINTENDENT.

All that has been said in regard to making the State superintendent an appointive officer applies equally to the county superintendent. The superiority of the appointive plan is quite generally recog nized and it is being widely adopted throughout the United States. In 23 States the county or other rural superintendents are now appointed officers; in 25 they are still elected political officers. A recent study made by the Bureau of Education relative to the educa

tion, training, experience, and terms of county superintendents shows that the term of service in States in which they are appointed is much longer than in the States in which they are elected, and that men and women with more general education and teaching experience are selected in appointive States for county superintendents than in those States in which they are elected by popular vote. For instance, among the appointed county superintendents at the time the study was made, 36 per cent were serving their first term, 35 per cent had served two or more full terms; among the elected superintendents 52 per cent were serving their first term and only 19 per cent had served two or more full terms. This summary does not include the rural superintendents of New England, many of whom have served many years, nor the district superintendents of New York or the county superintendents of Ohio, who, on account of the changes in the State school laws, are all serving their first terms. As to education, approximately 83 per cent of the rural superintendents in New England have had four years of standard college education and an additional 12 per cent have had at least two years of college work. In New York State 32 per cent have had complete college education, and an additional 50 per cent from one to three years of college. Among the county superintendents appointed in various ways 1.7 per cent had elementary education only, while among those elected by the people approximately 8 per cent had elementary education only. Among the appointed superintendents 44 per cent have had full standard college education, while among the elected superintendents less than 15 per cent are college grad

uates.

Training and experience.-An attempt was made in connection with this study of Colorado to determine the education, training, and experience of the county superintendents of the State. It happens that the work was done at an inopportune time-during the two months preceding the biennial election. With primaries held in September and election early in November, practically the entire time of a majority of county superintendents was taken up with political matters. One superintendent wrote after election that he "had been too busy to reply before." The 40 who replied include those generally recognized as the best-qualified superintendents of the State. Experience in collecting personal data of this sort in many States from superintendents and teachers shows that the well trained and well qualified are always the most willing to give the information asked for. A table giving the education, training, etc., of those reporting is given in the section on Supervision in this report.

Salaries.-If superintendents are appointed by the county boards of education, salaries may be paid sufficient to attract and hold the men and women desired. Under the present plan salaries are fixed by law. Some are adequate, but the majority are entirely inadequate. They are given below. The counties are divided into seven classes by the State legislature. The classification is arbitrary, and not properly related to the area, wealth, number of schools, or population of the counties. It is made solely for the purpose of fixing the salaries of county superintendents.

TABLE 9.-Salaries of county superintendents.

Tenure.-Tenure of office is an important factor in the efficiency of the county superintendency. Two years, the present term, is too short a time in which to carry out educational reforms, especially when the superintendent's function is advisory only and these reforms must come about through his ability to persuade a large number of directors-three for each district-to adopt them. Good work is not always rewarded at popular elections. Even the feature of accepting persons not specifically trained in supervision would be overcome in some degree if the incumbents of the county superintendencies remained long enough so that experience in the position would compensate in some measure for lack of training. In practice, however, this does not happen. In 1914, of the 63 superintendents in Colorado 23 were reelected. Of the present superintendents

The following table shows the tenure of office of county superintendents during the past 20 years. A summary of this table shows that since 1890 Colorado has had 478 county superintendents.

TABLE 10.-Length of service, in years, of county superintendents in Colorado from Jan. 1, 1890, to Dec. 31, 1916.

Colorado's present system lacks the necessary centralization to insure State-wide progress. The present ex officio board of education performs no function that could not be done as well by the State superintendent alone. There is need for a different sort of board, one created by law as the actual head of the school system and composed of members appointed or elected on account of their peculiar fitness for the functions to be performed. This board should determine educational policies to be carried out by its executive officer.

The present State superintendency is a political office; in filling it little regard is paid to professional training and experience in educational work. The powers and duties now conferred upon the office are not definite or broad enough to make it the important factor in the State school system that it should be. Few assistants are employed; an inadequate salary is provided. The chief State school officer should be selected for personal fitness by the State board of education with the same degree of care and in the same manner as

the presidents of the State institutions of higher education are selected.

The State board of examiners performs no functions that could not be better performed by the State department of education. The entire system of certification of teachers is inadequate to the present needs.

Opportunities for vocational education are greatly needed in the State, particularly for the trades and industries, argriculture, and housekeeping. Experience in other States seems to show that much progress may be expected only when special State aid is provided.

The present system of local mangement (as well as of support) is very unsatisfactory. Colorado in adopting a larger unit for management will be doing what more than half the States have already found it necessary to do. The county system would remedy the principal defects of the present system; it would provide also a means of obtaining for the country schools a professional head in the person of a county superintendent no longer a political officer but a professional school officer, selected with the same care as city superintendents are selected in the best cities.