Commissioner of Education

“ Every teacher is required to pass an examination prepared by the commissioner of education as a test of his or her qualifications, and the teacher is responsible to the educational department for the enforcement of the rules and the application of the methods of instruction that have received its indorsement. ”

“ The Commissioner is authorized to arrange, through grants or contracts, with institutions of higher education for the operation of short-term or regular session institutes for special training designed to improve the ability of teachers, supervisors, counselors, and other elementary or secondary school personnel to deal effectively with special educational problems occasioned by desegregation. ”

“ The office of the Commissioner of Education at Washington has become of such importance that it is an urgent necessity that the head of this office be given a higher rank and be afforded better means of carrying on the great work for which he is responsible. ”

“ At the head of this department in every state there should be a minister of public instruction—whether he is called school superintendent, school commissioner, secretary of the board of education, or superintendent of public instruction—and he should be allowed time to make himself familiar with all the leading writers on the subject of education, in whatever age or language their works may have been written. Such an officer can not in any other way become qualified for the proper discharge of the duties which pertain to his profession. ”

“ Whether state superintendents are demanding the facts and educating the county and city headquarters of their states should be known to the national commissioner of education and by him published for all the world. Some people think the state health board should be responsible, others the state educational authority. The important thing is to make some one officer responsible. Methods can be easily worked out if the need is conceded. Legislatures will gladly confer the powers necessary to reading the index of all public schools. ”

“ This is the most highly paid office occupied by a woman, the salary being the same as that of the Secretary of State, State Auditor and State Treasurer. By virtue of her office the Superintendent is a member of the State Boards of Pardons, Charities and Reforms, Land Commissioners, School Land Commissioners and Education, with power to appoint all members of the last board, which elects the State Commissioner of Education. ”

“ General.—Under the provisions of the law of 1899 the general administration of educational affairs is committed to a board of education consisting of a president, appointed by the crown, lord president of the council, the principal secretaries of state, the first commissioner of the treasury, and the chancellor of the exchequer—not less than five nor more than fifteen members. By means of a sufficient number of royal inspectors who are trained educators, whose duty it is to visit the schools and report thereon, the board of education is able to reach every school in the kingdom. ”

“ The commissioner by rule shall establish the grade levels at which a teacher provides instruction to be eligible to participate in a civics training program. In making the determination, the commissioner shall include grade levels for which the State Board of Education makes significant revisions to the essential knowledge and skills for the social studies curriculum under Section 28.002 (h-2) . ”

“ The Commissioner expresses the opinion that population in the Territories has outstripped the number of school-houses and teachers, and that the present Territorial provisions for education are inadequate. He renews his recommendation that greater importance be given to educational office in the Territories. ”

“ He was made president of the National Educational Association in 1875, represented the United States government at the Brussels International Congress of Educators in 1880, and in 1889 prepared the official Statement of the System of Education of the United States for the Paris and Vienna Expositions, and was appointed United States commissioner of education by President Harrison. ”

“ Further, § 13 of the amendatory Act of 1866 specifically provided that 'the commissioner of this bureau shall at all times co-operate with private benevolent associations of citizens in aid of freedmen, and with agents and teachers, duly accredited and appointed by them, and shall hire or provide by lease buildings for purposes of education whenever such associations shall, without cost to the government, provide suitable teachers and means of instruction ”

“ Each county has a school Commissioner whose business it is to examine candidates for teaching, to employ and direct teachers, to approve bills of salary, to visit each school in his district without announcement at least once a quarter, to remove and replace teachers, to make reports to the General Superintendent, to supply text-books, and hold annual teachers’ meetings in order to develop greater ability on the part of the instructors. Compulsory education is recognized in the Republic ”

“ The annual budget for these purposes runs from twelve to twenty millions of dollars a year.
Third, in the establishment of a National Bureau of Education which collects statistics and information and distributes reports on all subjects connected with the educational interests of America. The Commissioner at the head of this bureau is a man of high standing and scholarship. He is chosen without reference to politics, and holds his office independent of party. ”

“ Becoming attracted to the study of educational theory and practice, he was chosen in 1854 inspector of schools, and was appointed by the government from time to time to make special educational investigations. In 1863 he resigned as a protest against the revised code of Robert Lowe (Lord Sherbrooke) [q. v.] . He was subsequently special commissioner to the African settlements, assistant commissioner under the royal commission of inquiry into primary education (Ireland) , 1870, and director of public instruction in Ceylon. ”

“ Most of this money is expended in the salaries and maintenance of pupil teachers, so that these model schools are, in effect, colleges, with their exhibitions to attract students. Over these model schools the commissioners have absolute control, and through them, and by means of them, they exercise an almost absolute influence over the whole system of education in connection with the Board. ”

“ The State Commission on People’s Education is by no means a central power governing the institutions of instruction and education. On the contrary, the entire school work ought to be transferred to the organs of local self-government. The independent work of the workers, soldiers and peasants, establishing on their own initiative cultural educational organisations, must be given full autonomy, both by the State centre and the Municipal centres. ”

“ The secretary of state for the home department undertook on that occasion, on behalf of her majesty's late government, that such an inquiry should be instituted, and he intimated that it should be conducted under the authority of the committee of council on education. ”

“ A machinery of government inspectors of schools was organized, and a permanent educational secretary attached to the committee. Not to mention other valuable results, we may add that the establishment of workhouse and factory schools, and the institution of the normal school for training teachers at Kneller Hall, are among the most prominent benefits for which we are indebted to this growing recognition of a care for the extension of general education as one of the duties of government. ”

“ I think it would be much better to put complete control and responsibility in the District Commissioners, and then provide a board of school visitors, to be appointed by the Supreme Court of the District or by the President, from the different school districts of Washington, who, representing local needs, shall meet and make recommendations to the Commissioners and to the Superintendent of Education—an educator of ability and experience who should be an appointee of and responsible to the District Commissioners. ”

“ The beneficent work of the Commission of 1854 would have its full realization, the colleges would be able to develope and emancipate their resources, and, above all, the State would advance steadily to the conception and realisation of a completely organized system of national education. In twenty years we should be in all respects in a better position for undertaking the work which a few impatient doctrinaires are hurrying on prematurely. ”

“ The professional schools must be given every encouragement. Whatever economies may be necessary, we cannot afford to overlook the great need of education. I have already indicated that a special commission will be appointed to review our educational system. ”

“ The aim of the commissioners is, therefore, to recruit young men of thorough general education for an important and lifelong administrative career. With this object the candidates are required to be between twenty-two and twenty-four years of age, and the examination, which has no direct connection with their subsequent duties, is closely fitted to the courses of study in the universities. ”

“ In some portions of the state the committees are wholly, and in others they are partly, responsible for the qualifications of teachers; they everywhere superintend and give character to the schools, and by their annual reports they exert a large influence over public opinion. The people now usually elect well-qualified men; and it is believed that the extracts from the local reports, published annually by the Board of Education, constitute the best series of papers in the language upon the various topics that have from time to time been considered. ”

“ There is hardly a girl’s school in this Christian Kingdom where the children’s courage and sincerity would be thought of half so much importance as their way of coming in at a door.... And give them, lastly, not only noble teachings, but noble teachers.’ [40]
The Schools’ Inquiry Commission was instituted to examine into the existing state of education above the elementary grade, and to report on measures needed for its improvement, having special regard to all endowments applicable, or which could rightly be made applicable, thereto. ”

“ It was very well, at first starting, for the commissioners to be guided, in their choice of subjects and in assigning values to those subjects, by the received branches of education in the schools and colleges. ”

“ In view of the fact that such vast interests are involved,—the instruction of over twenty million pupils, requiring the service of more than half a million teachers, involving the expenditure of nearly three hundred million dollars per annum, and of vital interest to the whole population,—many educators believe that the bureau should be elevated to the dignity of a department of the government with a cabinet officer at its head. ”

“ It will be the duty of the commission to promote and extend, and, as it finds occasion, to improve, the system of education already inaugurated by the military authorities. In doing this it should regard as of first importance the extension of a system of primary education which shall be free to all, and which shall tend to fit the people for the duties of citizenship and for the ordinary avocations of a civilized community. ”

“ Now, to meet the needs of the generations to come, we have established a Department of Education to express our national commitment to education, to promote equal educational opportunity, to assist local authorities in their efforts to improve our schools, and to administer Federal education programs more efficiently. ”

“ Such establishments are to be instituted only with the State's previous knowledge and consent. All public schools and public establishments of education are under the State's supervision, and must at all times submit themselves to its examinations and inspections. {721} Whenever the appointment of teachers is not by virtue of the foundation or of a special privilege vested in certain persons or corporations, it belongs to the State. ”

“ The leading idea of the Commissioners’ scheme was, as every one knows, the Professoriate. The multiplication of professors was to be the remedy for all shortcomings in the way of education; a government by professors was to close all mouths which were complaining of the powers that be, and demanding representation; college revenues, applied to the liberal support of professors, could no longer excite the envy, or awake the rapacity of reformers, but must be held to have been at last applied to their rightful uses ”

“ By the Education Act of 1902 the council is given large authority within the domain of education. It must see that adequate provision is made for elementary schools, and it may assist in the maintenance of agencies of education of higher grades. ”

“ The work of guiding in general the people’s education, inasmuch as it remains with the central government, is, until the Constituent Assembly meets, entrusted to a Commission on the People’s Education, whose chairman and executive is the People’s Commissar. ”

“ He started that searching inquiry into the administration, management, and instruction of institutions of every grade, and into all educational societies, school funds, legislation, architecture, documents, and benefactions that has since been maintained by the Bureau of Education. However, within three years a change in politics brought a new incumbent into the commissionership, and Barnard gave his literary efforts once more to his beloved Journal. ”

“ The limitations of the Constitution left education as a State interest, to be worked out by each commonwealth as it should think best. There had always been a general desire among teachers for some national organization, and at last, after the Civil War, Congress established a department, and then later made a Bureau of Education in the Department of the Interior. ”