these things began with the school board; and they have made Liverpool, once a neglected city, a center, and a great center, of educational spirit and influence. What is true of Liverpool is true of dozens of other great places."a THE STRAIN ON VOLUNTARY SCHOOLS. It was impossible for "voluntary schools" to keep pace with this progress, which not only increased the annual expenditure for the schools, but required also costly buildings and equipment. In 1896 the school boards were spending on an average $13 for the instruction of a pupil; voluntary schools spent only $9, a difference of $4 per pupil. In the cities the difference ran up to $7 and $9 per capita. It was the difference between the steady resource of a public tax and the uncertain action of private benevolence, and, according to Sir John Gorst, former chief of the education department, was 'almost entirely represented by a lower payment of the teaching staff." 66 Complaints of the intolerable strain upon the voluntary schools won the attention of Parliament, and in 1897 a law was passed providing an extra grant at the rate of 5s. per capita of attendance for schools of this class. The law also authorized the federation of voluntary schools and the allotment of the grant at the discretion of the governing bodies of the federation. The slight departure in 1897 from the basis of the original school law was followed by a series of events which greatly disturbed progressive school boards. The withdrawal of the grants from the science and art department for elementary schools (1900); the Cockerton judgment to the effect that school boards could not apply the income from local taxes for instruction in subjects other than elementary,b and the minute of the board of education (April 6, 1900) fixing 15 years as the upper age limit for pupils in higher elementary schools, had already disorganized the higher grade schools when the election of 1901 brought into power a ministry distinctly committed to the preservation of denominational schools. THE NEW CENTRAL AUTHORITY. Reference should here be made to the law of 1899 creating a new central authority, the board of education. To this body were committed educational functions hitherto performed by the following agencies: The committee of council on education, one division of which administered the grant for elementary schools and another division the grant for science and art schools; the charity commissioners, as related to the reorganization of educational trusts and endowments; and the board of agriculture. The new law did not limit the duties of the board to elementary education; it provided for “ a consultative committee to be constituted by an order in council, consisting of persons qualified to represent the views of universities and other bodies interested in education for the purpose of framing, with the approval of the board of education, regulations for a register of teachers" and of "advising the board of education on any matter referred to them by the board." The law also authorized the board "to inspect any school supplying secondary education and desiring to be inspected." Thus the weight of Government was thrown in favor of unity and system thruout the work of public education. THE LAW OF 1902. The purpose of the law of 1902, as stated by Mr. Balfour in his speech on presenting the measure to the House of Commons, was "to fulfil the pledge given in the King's speech that a bill should be introduced dealing not with secondary education or with primary education in their isolation, but with both in one measure and with a view to their better coordination." In the interest of unity and coordination the school boards created by the law of 1870 a Parliamentary Debates, 4th series, vol. 155, p. 1019. b Rex. v. Cockerton, L. R. [1901] 1 Q. B., p. 726. were swept out of existence, and the voluntary schools were placed upon the local taxes but without control by public authorities. In view of the protests from both Conservatives and Liberals against such a precedent, a slight modification was made by which the local education authorities were allowed to appoint two out of six managers of voluntary schools, and at the last moment the KenyonSlaney clause was carried which placed the religious instruction under the control of these managers. (Part III, sec. 6, 2.)a The effects of the endeavor to put sectarian schools upon the taxes, in particular the remarkable movement of passive resistance which it excited, and the united opposition of the Welsh councils, with the coercive efforts of the Government that followed,c have obscured the more important provisions of the law of 1902. These provisions relate to the local administration of schools and can not be understood without reference to conditions that made reform in this respect a matter of urgent necessity. For elementary schools the units of local administration, as determined by the law of 1870, were towns, or, as they are technically termed, municipal boroughs, and civil parishes outside the towns. In London, which was dealt with separately, the school districts already existing for purposes of the poor school laws were taken, and failing these, the vestries. The choice was not ideal, but it was the best possible at the time. "We take," said Mr. Forster, "present known divisions and declare them to be school districts." These "known divisions," which seem so clear in the language of the law, were intermingled with other areas of overlapping boundaries subject to separate elections, distinct tax levies and governing powers, forming a complicated system which "it would require," Mr. Thring once said, "the genius of a local Moltke to reform." Since 1870, however, great change has been wrought in local government in England. City administration has been unified thru the powers intrusted to elected councils (municipal corporations act of 1882), and the whole of England and Wales has been mapped out into 60 administrative counties and 61 county boroughs, having each more than 50,000 inhabitants, making, with the county of London (Greater London), 122 new administrative areas for local self-government. Each area is governed by a county council, elected like the municipal councils, by popular ballot. But these measures, which simplified local administration as a whole, further complicated that of the schools. The councils, municipal and county, were intrusted with public funds for technical education and were empowered also to levy a tax (not exceeding a penny in the pound) for the same purpose.d Hence in the cities and towns there was friction and waste of resources between school boards and the education committees of the councils. Everywhere reform was demanded, larger areas for the administration of rural schools, a paramount authority for cities and towns. The Balfour bill supplied both these desiderata by making the councils of counties and county boroughs the education authorities in their respective areas (clause 1). But immediately, to allay the excitement in the great cities caused by the overthrow of the school boards, boroughs having more than 20,000 inhabitants and urban districts having more than 10,000 were given independent control of their schools. The fear also that higher grade schools would be discontinued was lessened by an amendment to clause 2 dealing with that subject. As originally drawn a local education authority was authorized to supply education other than elementary. The amendment made the action compulsory, and specified particularly the duty of making provision for training teachers and for coordinating all forms of education, e a For text of Part III, see pp. 42-43. The national extent of the movement is illustrated by the following facts reported at the Free Church Conference, Birmingham, March, 1906, by the secretary of the "national passive resistance committee:" "Up to that time 70,880 summonses had been issued against passive resisters; 2,645 sales had taken place, and there were 548 leagues, more or less, in active opposition to the education act; 176 passive resisters had gone to prison, and they were willing to go on doing so until the act was repealed." (School Government Chronicle, March 24, 1906, p. 276.) c Education, local authority default act, 1904. d Technical instruction acts, 1889, 1891; Local taxation (customs and excise) act, 1890. e For text of clause, see p. 42. There followed a concession to the smaller cities and to urban areas, giving their councils " 'concurrent powers with the county councils in respect to the expenditure for higher grade schools" (clause 3). Finally, in view of the fact that the councils were already overtaxed, it was provided that they should delegate their powers under the law— excepting only the power of raising a rate or borrowing money-to education committees (Part IV, sec. 17), while both councils and committees were relieved of the oversight of individual schools through the provision of school managers. (Part III, sec. 6.) c Thus to the councils designated as education authorities in the first clause of the law (in all, 129) were added 201 city councils, 853 authorities for "higher" education, and an indefinite number of education committees and school managers.d The London school board, excepted from the law of 1902, was abolished the following year by a special law and the London county council added to its already enormous task the administration of a school system charged with the instruction of nearly a million children and a public expenditure of £4,000,000 ($20,000,000) a year. As a result of the changes made by the law of 1902 in the status of elementary schools the old terms "board" and "voluntary" schools were replaced by the terms "provided" and "nonprovided" schools. To the former class belong all schools provided by the local authorities, whether former board schools or new schools established by the councils; the voluntary schools were thenceforth to be termed "nonprovided." As the latter were admitted to share in the local taxes equally with the provided schools, the distinction between the two classes of schools was narrowed down to the privileges of denominational teaching and private control which the voluntary schools still retained. The difficulties that beset local school administration in England are strikingly shown by the breaking down of the "one paramount authority" principle in the law of 1902. In spite, however, of complications and the indiscriminate sacrifice of the experienced school boards, called by Mr. Bryce, "the most potent and active force in education since 1870," the law of 1902 marks a distinct advance in respect to two particulars. As pointed out by Doctor Macnamara, "not only for the first time will every area in the country possess a public authority charged with the administration of education but also—and again for the first time-it is made possible to bring all grades of education, elementary, technical, and secondary, under one and the same local authority in each district. * The act revolutionizes the system of financing education in this country. It sweeps away once and for all the dangerous anachronism of endeavoring in part to maintain the education of more than half the children attending the elementary schools out of voluntary contributions. * * * For the first time, too, the local rate will be universalized. * * Of the entire ratable value of England and Wales-£186,500,000-quite sixty millions will thus be brought under compulsory contribution toward elementary education for the first time." e * * THE MAGNITUDE OF THE SCHOOL SYSTEM. The foregoing review sets in historic perspective the three great problems with which the education bill of 1906 has to deal―i. e., the basis of a national system, the just treatment of denominational schools, and local school administration. The magnitude of the educational work, the efficiency of which is the matter of prime importance, is indicated by the following tables, which bring into comparative view the enrollment of pupils and the annual expenditure for the schools at the beginning of successive decades. In 1873, the first date selected, the law of 1870 was in full operation; in 1883 the compulsory principle had become well established; and by 1893 the “fee grant” provided by the law of 1891 had brought the a For text of clause, see p. 42. For text, see p. 43. c For text, see p. 42. d See Macnamara, Doctor, The new education act at work. Fortnightly Review, January 1903. e Fortnightly Review, January 1903. f Taken from the official reports for the years specified. great body of the schools to a free basis, more than four-fifths of the schools having at that date remitted fees and 4,236,867 pupils, above 82 per cent of the total number, having the benefit of free tuition. In 1903, when the education law of 1902 had come into operation, the proportion of free schools had risen to 93 per cent. From Table I it will be seen that the elementary education of the masses in England is controlled practically by the Established Church and the local authorities. In the last decade included in the table (1893-1903) the latter schools have outstript the church schools even in respect to number of pupils. In 1893 they enrolled 41 per cent of the pupils as against 44 per cent in the church schools; in 1903 the relations were reversed, board or council schools had run up to 49 per cent of the total enrollment, while church schools had fallen to 39 per cent. The British and Wesleyan schools are rapidly becoming a negligible factor in the problem, as they readily pass over to public control. The Roman Catholic schools on the contrary increase, but they represent a very small proportion of the total school provision and they reach a particular class of the poor in crowded centers. The Government grant for schools, excluding grants for building and other permanent works, had reached in 1902 the princely sum of £8,000,000 ($40,000,000). The Church of England schools derived from this source 77 per cent of their income; in the different classes of voluntary schools the proportion ranged from 72 to 80 per cent, the remainder being made up from endowments, subscriptions, and fees. In the board schools, which absorbed 44 per cent of the grant, the income from this source was only 50 per cent of their entire income. The other 50 per cent, excepting a trifling amount, was derived from the rates. TABLE I.-Distribution of schools and pupils at specified dates. a Report of committee of council on education, 1873-74, Part II, pp. 2, 3. b Report of committee of council on education, 1883-84, p. 205. c Report of committee of council on education, 1893-94, p. 715. d Report of board of education, statistics of public education in England and Wales, 1903–1905, p. 30. • Includes 13 Jewish schools with 11,387 pupils. f Now "nonprovided" schools. Now "provided" schools. TABLE II.-Income from Government grant and local sources. a Report of committee of council on education, Part II, Appendix, 1873-74, pp. 4, 5. Report of committee of council on education, 1884-85, pp. 232-234. c Report of committee of council on education, 1893-94, p. 740. d Report of board of education, statistics of public elementary schools and training colleges, 1901-2, pp. 66, 67. THE EDUCATION BILL OF 1906. THE MAIN CLAUSES, WITH DISCUSSIONS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS AND THE PUBLIC PRESS. In its original form, the education bill of 1906 comprized five parts; as reported from the committee and finally adopted by the House it is reduced to four, Part II relating to educational endowments having been withdrawn from want of time for its consideration. It is understood that this subject will be covered hereafter by a separate measure. PART I. ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS. The foundation of the bill, the declaration of the national basis, is clause 1, which past the House without amendments in committee stage by a majority of 203. The clause is as follows: On and after the first day of January, one thousand nine hundred and eight, a school shall not be recognized as a public elementary school unless it is a school provided by the local education authority. Mr. Birrell said on presenting the measure: It can surprise no one that by the very first clause of this bill it is proposed to be provided that on and after January 1st, 1908, a school shall not be recognized as a public elementary school unless it is a school provided by the local educational authority. That is to say, from and after the date named, no elementary school shall receive a penny of public money either from rates or taxes unless it becomes a provided school within the meaning of the education acts. Unless electoral promises and pledges are fustian and |