County-Unit Organization for the Administration of Rural Schools. Bulletin, 1914, No. 44. Whole Number 618

United States Bureau of Education, Department of the Interior.

N

58

School Administration; Counties; Rural Schools; School Funds; Governance; School Districts; Local Government; Comparative Analysis; Attendance Patterns; Supervision; Taxes; Educational Finance; Purchasing; Equipment; Educational Resources; Boards of Education; Administrative Organization

Tennessee; Utah

With the increase of interest in the rural public schools in all the States has come a desire for more effective rural school administration, to the ends that there may be a more economic use of school funds and that all children may have opportunities, both better and more nearly equal, to gain the preparation for life required by more rural conditions in so far as this preparation may be gained in the schools. It is not generally conceded that the single-school district as the unit of administration should give way to a larger administrative unit, as it has already done in a large majority of the States. The opinion as to whether this larger administrative unit should be the county or some division of the county, as the township or the magisterial district, is not so nearly unanimous, but the trend of opinion is toward the county unit. Many requests have been received for information as to the results obtained in those States which make the county the unit of school administration, and as to the merits of the county unit of administration, as compared with the smaller unit. To assist the Bureau of Education in answering these enquiries, Mr. A. C. Monahan, the bureau's specialist in rural school administration, has prepared this bulletin, which covers the following topics: (1) Units of organization (district, township, and county); (2) Essentials of existing county systems; (3) How the county organization is brought about; (4) Success of the county-unit plan; (5) A comparison of Salt Lake County, consolidated, with Utah County, unconsolidated, State of Utah (school population and attendance, management and supervision, equality in taxation, economy in purchase of all school supplies and equipment, and compensation of school boards); and (6) The county versus the district unit in Tennessee. (Contains 7 tables, 2 maps, and 7 footnotes.) [Best copy available has been provided.]

ERIC

2013

ED541726