ANNUAL REPORT To the Honorable, the Legislature of the State of Wisconsin: GENTLEMEN: In accordance with the requirements of section 67 chapter 10, revised statutes, I have the honor to submit the following REPORT. The strife for national integrity, which has raged so fearfully during the year under review, has completely overshadowed other interests. Its din has reached every school district in this State, even those farthest removed from the scenes of its activity. Intelligent and active supporters of the Public School have very naturally gone to the field of conflict. Many of our best teachers, adding to their teaching the weight of example, are now found in the ranks battling manfully for the country whose best interests they had labored so zealously to advance in the more quiet school room. School officers stand side by side with their former employers. Older pupils, who have given character to the schools, have followed their loved teachers. Many others have been needed at home during the absence of father or brother. Business of all kinds has suffered. Prospects of increased taxation have warned the prudent to be careful of present expenditures. Public attention has been fixed upon the one all absorbing topic. Under such circumstances, it would not be a matter of surprise should school interests be neglected, and the cause of popular education go backward. If, with such obstacles to progress, the ground already attained be firmly held, the friends of the cause may take courage. With what joy then should we hail the announcement that in in many respects an actual advance has been made. For proof this assertion, I refer you to the STATISTICS. Tables 2, 3, 4, and 5 of the appendix, contain the reports in detail. The general results are embraced in the following Number of male children between 4 and 20 years of age.. Number of districts maintaining school more than one term....................................... Number of whole districts.... 3,787 Number of parts of districts......... 1,764 Number of districts reckoning 24 parts equal to a whole district......... 4,571 Number of districts not reporting.. 164 Number of parts of districts not reporting.. 117 Whole number of districts unreported........ 220 157,138 150,918 308,056 ................. .......... Whole number of days attendance of pupils during winter term....... t Average wages paid male teachers per month during winter term.............. Tax levied by county boards..... Tax levied by towns..... District taxes for teachers' wages...... District taxes for school houses....... District taxes for maps, charts and apparatus..... District taxes for of her purposes.... Total school taxes raised....... Number of stone school houses... Number of frame school houses. Total number of school houses........ Number of sites containing less than one acre.. Number of school houses without blackboards.... Highest valuation of any one school house...... Number of district libraries...... ................... .............. 81,116 61 192 2,324 1.227 3,909 3,111 2,959 685 2,849 $1,255,852 00 12,000 00 01 322 25 818 32,895 1,060 20,871 To those who have been in the habit of studying carefully the statistical part of the superintendent's report, new items will appear. In some instances they are made to supplant old and familiar items. The new faces introduced were very much needed to make the circle complete. Some old acquaintances have been dropped because no longer profitable, others because their places could be supplied with more trust-worthy. friends. Blanks were prepared in such a manner as to simplify the labors of the district clerks. Of one item only there seems to have been an almost entire misapprehension. There is so little reliance to be placed upon the reports on account of this misapprehension, that this item is entirely omitted for this year. It will be made plain another year. Such remarks as are necessary to a thorough understanding of the several items in the summary, will be found under their appropriate heads. Two towns only-Chambers Island of Door county, and Peru of Dunn county-have failed to make their report, a smaller number than during any previous year. Last year there were five unreported towns. The number of school children in the two towns not reported, were in 1861 but 52. School Districts.-The number of districts reported last year was 3,762, and 1,792 parts of districts. The whole number of districts (reckoning 21 parts as equal to one district) was then 4,558. During the year there has been an increase of 25 whole districts, and a decrease of 28 parts of districts, making an actual increase of 13 districts only during the year. The present number is 4,571. The increase may all be absorbed by the number of districts belonging to the 3 towns not reported last year but reported this year. The actual increase of districts cannot exceed 5 or 6 at any rate. In previous reports I have urged the abandonment of joint districts for reasons that have been sufficiently set forth, The past two years have shown commendable progress in the right direction. The joint districts of the state were, two years ago, nearly 20 per cent. of the whole number. They are now considerably less than 17 per cent. To show that my reasons for encouraging the abandonment of the joint district system are well founded, I will here repeat what I have before stated. The number of appeals to this department for the adjustment of difficulties in connection with the formation and alteration of joint districts bears a very large disproportion to the whole number. Joint districts constitute but 17 per cent. of the whole number of districts. Of the 78 appeals decided by this department during three years past, 34 or nearly 44 per cent. have related to joint districts. Examination of the correspondence of this department for the same time upon matters never reaching the point of a formal appeal would show as great a disproportion. It is safe to assert that the difficulties growing out of joint district organizations more than counterbalance the advantages, except in the very few cases, where the features of the country render any other organization impossible. In the older counties, school districts are generally smaller than is consistent with their efficiency or with economy. According to the census of 1860 the number of acres improved in the state was a little less than 3,750,000. The average to each district is but 820 acres, or a little over one and one quarter sections of improved land to each school district. The average valuation of each district, according to the same census, is less than $40,000. The average number of pupils entitled to school privileges is but 64. From the grand total of valuation and population take that of the cities and larger villages, and the average will be very materially reduced. Making all due allowance for sparsity of population and the absolute necessities of the newer portions of our state, it can not be denied that the average should even now be larger than it is in both property and population. Economy and efficiency alike demand the gradual elevation of this average. The average for the country districts should not be less than that for the whole state when the cities and villages are embraced. There must be small and feeble schools in sparsely settled districts. But they need not be kept small and feeble as is too often the case by a generous giving away of their natural increase. Generous giving is sometimes the offspring of pure selfishness. I very much fear that school districts are often crippled through the unwillingness of the people to make their accommodations agree with their needs. To save a present penny, the means of securing two pence hereafter is sometimes foolishly thrown away. The work of consolidation seems to have begun. The increase of districts in numbers is not at all commensurate with the increase of population. In this fact I find much cause for rejoicing. I trust that the many small districts formed to favor the whims or caprices of individuals or of neighborhoods, may be so united as to subserve the general interests of the people and of the state. Petty jealousies should not stand in the way of the general good. It would be far better for our schools, were the present district system. so modified as to have each township constitute one district with as many sub-districts as the wants of the people would require. The interests of the several sections of a town are generally identical, while their modes of advancing their interests may be and often are as varied as selfishness and jealousy can make them. Each section organized as an independent district must necessarily follow the will of its own majority. This ma jority may in some instances be inimical to the public school, and thus deprive a large minority of privileges which they would gladly secure for themselves, and which they might secure could they be united with the more liberal majorities of other sections of the town. If majorities were always with the right, or always acted for the public good, this plea need not be made. It may be urged on the other hand, that an enlightened majority of one section may be overborne by the less liberal yet larger majorities of other sections of the town. This is admitted, but it is believed that such cases would be comparatively rare, and the greatest good of the greatest number should be our motto. In point of economy, I doubt not the township system would be far preferable to the present system. More time of better officers would naturally be secured. It would secure facilities for gradation not now possessed, and give to each town a central high school of easy access to all who would be fitted to enter such a school. The finances could be be more economically managed. Teachers could be thus furnished with permanent employment by a slight change of location from term to term, and in many instances the inhabitants would be better accommodated by such an arrangement. The management of the schools could thus be made more uniform, and their reports would be more reliable. Each sub-district might still maintain a separate organization, whose trustees should have the general care and supervision of the school-house and other property, and at the same time visit and inspect the school of their sub-district. The presidents of the several local boards of trustees might form a board for the general management of the schools of the town, designating some of their number as agents for the employment of teachers, and to act as trustees of the high school. The state may not be ready for the full operation of such a plan, but it can never enter upon it at a more favorable time. Each year of delay wears the ruts deeper in the old track, and makes a change more difficult. Were each township a district we should have this year but two unreported districts for the whole state. As it is there are 220 unreported, or nearly five per cent. of the whole number. Many district clerks are very careless in this respect, and I know of no better remedy than to make each district clerk personally liable for any loss to the district through his carelessness or neglect. At the time for making the annual reports the state was aglow with excitement incident to the raising of large numbers of troops for the country's service. This will no doubt account for the increase in the number of unreported districts over tat of the year previous, Taking all the circumstances into consideration, it is encouraging that so few failures have occurred. Every district and every part of a district is reported from the coun ties of Ashland, Douglas, Iowa, Juneau, Kenosha, La Pointe, Milwaukee, Walworth and Wood. Green, Ozaukee, Rock, Sauk, Washington, Waukesha and Winnebago, report every whole district, but fail in a few parts of districts. Manitowoc county shows the largest number of districts unreported. The apportionment of the state fund is made upon the basis of the number of children reported. Towns having unreported districts fail to secure the share of money to which their population would entitle them, while other and less delinqueut towns profit by this failure. It is, therefore, a matter of pecuniary interest to the whole town, that every district be fully and fairly reported. Some authority should be given to the town clerk to secure such a result. School Children.-The whole number is 308,056; males 157,138, females 150,918. Excess of males 6,220. The difference in number between the sexes is gradually diminishing as the state grows older. It is this year 20 per cent. less than last, and more than 45 per cent. less than for 1860. The number of children is very nearly 3 per cent. greater than last year. In the counties of Adams, Ashland, Brown, Calumet, Douglas, Green Lake, Kewaunee, Marquette, Portage and Waushara, there has been a decrease in the number of children reported. Milwaukee county has the largest number of school children. Dane stands 2d; Dodge 3d; Fond du Lac 4th; Rock 5th; and Jefferson 6th. La Pointe shows an increase of 90 per cent.; Door and Shawanaw, each 30 per cent.; La Fayette 16 per cent; Clark 14 per cent.; La Crosse and Winnebago, each 12 per cent.; Iowa 9 per cent. Others vary from 1.10, of 1 per cent. to 7 per cent. In some cases the increase may be in part apparent rather than real, since, in several of the counties showing the |