LETTER OF TRANSMITTAL.

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR,

BUREAU OF EDUCATION, Washington, D. C., August 30, 1906.

SIR: In accordance with the provisions of the act approved May 28, 1896 (29 Stat. L., 171), authorizing the publication by the Bureau of Education of a bulletin “as to the condition of higher education, technical and industrial education, facts as to compulsory attendance in the schools, and such other educational topics in the several States of the Union and in foreign countries as may be deemed of value to the educational interests of the States," I have the honor to present herewith the first number of such bulletin for the year 1906, and to recommend its publication. This paper, prepared under my direction by Miss Anna Tolman Smith, of the staff of this Office, relates to the new English education bill, which had past the House of Commons and had gone to second reading in the House of Lords before the beginning of the present recess of Parliament. The introductory portion shows the relation of this bill to the historical development of public education in England and Wales. The passages carefully selected from the debate in Parliament and from other public utterances, show the nature of the changes which the bill would introduce by showing the attitude of the different parties and of well-known leaders toward those changes. Finally, the full text of the bill is given as it left the Commons, together with the text of the more important provisions of the act of 1902, now in force, which are necessary to a full understanding of the new measure.

The great interest in this bill which has been manifested in our country, the fact that for several months it has been and for months to come it is likely to be the pivot of English politics and of English education, and the further fact that it presents, in their English form, questions with which, in underlying principle, American education is concernedthese considerations give warrant to the hope that such a publication will be found timely and useful.

The following additional numbers of this bulletin are in course of preparation, and will, in all likelihood, be ready for publication during the coming fall and winter:

One relating to the report on American education recently made by the commission appointed by the Prussian ministry of commerce and industry, who visited this country in 1904;

One relating to the changes which have been made in our State school systems since 1904; One relating to changes in city school systems within the same period;

One relating to the German Hilfsschulen, or schools for backward and exceptional children.

Very respectfully,

The SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR.

ELMER ELLSWORTH BROWN,
Commissioner.

Principal dates in the history of the system of popular education, England and Wales.

1833. First grant (£20,000) made by Parliament for elementary education in England and Wales to be administered by the national and British foreign school societies (annually renewed).

1838. Committee of House of Commons appointed to investigate the education of the poorer classes. 1839. Committee of council on education established; annual grant increased to £30,000.

1846. Minutes issued by council on education recognizing definitely denominational (voluntary) schools and denominational training colleges for teachers; pupil-teacher system recognized.

1847. Commission of inquiry into education in Wales.

1858-1861. Duke of Newcastle's commission on state of popular education.

1861. Code (Lowe's) issued establishing system of payment by results (i. e., of examination of individual pupils).

1870. Elementary education act (Forster's) passed, requiring efficient schools to be maintained throughout the kingdom and providing for the election of local school boards to establish schools where needed; hence the dual system of board schools and voluntary schools both sharing in the government grant on the same conditions; board schools to draw further support from local taxes, but forbidden to give sectarian religious instruction.

1876. Amending act passed establishing the compulsory principle and creating school attendance committees for its enforcement in districts having no school board.

1880. Law obliging local educational authorities to make by-laws for the enforcement of compulsory school attendance.

1889-1891. Technical instruction laws authorizing county councils to levy a tax not exceeding a penny in the pound for the support of technical schools.

1890. Local taxation, customs, and excise law, placing the surplus of the liquor duties at the disposal of county councils, with the privilege of applying the same to technical instruction.

1891. Law providing for an extra grant for schools remitting tuition fees.

1893. (1) Law making 11 years the minimum age for exemption from school attendance, and requiring an examination in a grade not lower than the fourth for every child seeking exemption from school attendance; (2) law authorizing school boards to make special provision for the elementary instruction of blind children and of deaf and dumb children.

1897. Law providing a special grant for the benefit of "voluntary" (chiefly denominational) schools at the rate of 5s. per capita of average attendance; also authorizing the federation of voluntary schools and the allotment of the grant at the discretion of the governing bodies of the federations.

1899. (1) Law (defective and epileptic children's act) "empowering local educational authorities, at their discretion, to establish special schools or classes for mentally or physically defective children and special boarding institutions for juvenile epileptics;" (2) law raising the minimum age for exemption from school attendance from 11 to 12 years; (3) creating a board of education to replace "the education department and the science and art department, providing also for the transfer to the new board of certain powers exercised by the charity commissioners with respect to educational trusts and endowments, and for the transfer to the board of the educational functions of the board of agriculture." Further, the law authorizes "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, a register of teachers and of advising the board of education on any matter referred to them by the board." The law also authorizes the board "to inspect any school supplying secondary education and desiring to be so inspected."-Board on Education, act, 1899 (62 & 63, Vict. C., 33).

1900. Law authorizing local authorities to extend the upper limit of compulsory attendance from the thirteenth to the fourteenth year of age.

1902. Law reorganizing the national system of education, abolishing elected school boards, and transferring their duties to county and municipal councils (London excepted); admitting "voluntary" schools to share in the local taxes without control by local authorities; providing also for education other than elementary (secondary and technical).

1903. Law reorganizing system of education in London on the lines of law of 1902.

6

THE EDUCATION BILL OF 1906 FOR ENGLAND AND WALES

AS IT PAST THE HOUSE OF COMMONS.

By ANNA TOLMAN SMITH.

ORIGIN AND GENERAL PURPOSE OF THE BILL.

The new education bill for England and Wales was introduced into the House of Commons April 9, 1906, by the Hon. Augustine Birrell, minister of education.a It reached committee stage early in June, in which stage, under closure, its consideration was completed within the limit of twenty-three appointed days. It was reported to the House with amendments July 27, and past at the third reading by a majority of 192 in a total vote of 546.

The measure was thus completed in the lower house in time to reach the second reading in the House of Lords before Parliament rose (August 4), which insures for it their earliest consideration in the autumn session.

When the Conservative ministry resigned in December last and a Liberal ministry was formed, it was understood that education would be their first concern; the election which followed placed the matter beyond doubt; it gave the Liberals a majority of 61 in the House of Commons over all possible combinations, and a combined Liberal and Labor majority of 145. The electoral campaign had been fought out mainly over the educational question—that is, the question of popular control of schools supported by local taxes. In this respect the policy of the new bill was practically settled before Parliament assembled. In the Commons, the controversy between Liberals and Conservatives over the main question has been mingled with the conflicting demands of Nationalists, who in this matter stand for the Roman Catholic ideal, and those of the Labor party, whose call is for secular schools. After four months of exhaustive discussion the bill has emerged from the House, changed indeed from its original form, but intact as regards its main purposes.

By the provisions of the bill the dual system of board and voluntary schools established by the law of 1870 and strengthened by the law of 1902 is abolished.

After the 1st of January, 1908, every school supported by public taxes is to be under the control of the local authorities. Religious tests for teachers required heretofore in voluntary schools are abolished.

So far as the public provision of religious teaching is concerned, the simple Scripture lesson, the famous “Cowper-Temple" teaching allowed by the law of 1870 in board schools, is to be the universal system.

Special arrangements for denominational teaching in the voluntary schools transferred to the local authorities are made under the head of "facilities;" but this teaching is not to be given at public expense, nor during the recognized school hours, nor by the regular teachers, excepting in special cases coming under the "extended facilities clause." The latter clause with its corollary, the "contracting-out" scheme by which, under certain conditions, a denominational school may go back to the old basis established by the law of 1870—that is, may share in the Government grant as a private school-these complicate the measure without, however, the sacrifice of its vital principle.

As regards the local administration of schools the bill proposes important modifications in the system established by the law of 1902. In every aspect, therefore, the measure is

a The official title of the head of the Government board of education is "President of the board of education," but as Mr. Birrell is a member of the cabinet he is generally referred to as minister of education.

seen to be the outcome of historic conditions apart from which it is unintelligible. Hence, as preliminary to the presentation of the full text of the bill, it is proposed to consider here, first, the main particulars of the origin and growth of the existing school system in England (pp. 8-14); secondly, the main clauses of the bill in the light of the parliamentary discussions (pp. 14-31).

The full text of the bill follows on pages 31-40.

HISTORIC ANTECEDENTS.

ORIGIN OF THE DENOMINATIONAL OR VOLUNTARY SCHOOL SYSTEM.

Prior to 1870 the only schools for the poor in England were schools established by private bequests or by philanthropic and ecclesiastical efforts. Early in the nineteenth century two societies, the British and Foreign School Society, which required Bible teaching without sectarian doctrine in its schools,a and the National Society, auxiliary to the Church of England, entered systematically upon the work. They roused public interest in the cause, established schools, elementary and normal, and secured large sums for their support by annual subscriptions. The passage of the reform bill of 1832, which greatly extended the franchise in England, awakened a new sense of peril from the ignorance of the masses, and in the following year (1833) a Parliamentary grant of £20,000 ($100,000) was made in aid of elementary education. It was allotted to the two societies named, to be applied by them to the building of schoolhouses. The sense of responsibility in the matter grew apace. Leading statesmen, in particular Lord Brougham and Lord John Russell, took up the cause. The grant was annually renewed, increased in amount, and its applications extended. In 1839 a committee of the privy council was formed for the administration of the grant, and other religious denominations (Roman Catholic and Wesleyan) were soon after admitted to its benefits. Thus in 1870 there was already in existence a system of denominational schools, or, as they were termed, "voluntary" schools, aided by the state, but without compulsory existence or public control.

THE ELEMENTARY EDUCATION ACT, 1870.

Like the grant of 1833, the first education law for England and Wales, the Forster law of 1870, followed a reform law (1867) giving new extensions to the franchise. To the everincreasing danger from ignorance there was added at this time the pressure of competition with nations more keenly alive to the industrial relations of science and art.

The revelations made by Mr. Forster in the speech presenting his bill roused the Government from its apathy. "More or less imperfectly," he said, "1,500,000 children are educated in the schools that we help. * * * Of those between six and ten we have helped about 700,000 more or less, but we have left unhelped 1,000,000; while of those between ten and twelve, we have helped 250,000 and left unhelped at least 500,000."b In the great manufacturing centers hundreds of children of school age, the citizens and artizans of the future, ran wild in the streets. In Liverpool it was estimated that 20,000 out of 80,000 had no schooling; in Manchester 16,000 out of 65,000. In London the condition was appalling. "Where state help has been most wanted," said Mr. Forster, "state help has been least given."

To complete the voluntary system, "to fill up the gap," was the professed purpose of the Forster bill. Two principles ran thru its clauses, namely—

Legal enactment that there shall be efficient schools everywhere throughout the Kingdom. Compulsory provision of such schools if and where needed, but not unless proved to be needed.c

a In the Cowper-Temple clause of the education law of 1870 was embodied substantially the following regulation of this society: "No catechism or particular religious tenets shall be taught in the schools."-Cited from 17th Report of the Society (1822), p. 51.

b A verbatim report with indexes of the debate in Parliament during the progress of the elementary education bill, 1870, p. 6.

c Debate in Parliament, p. 8.

To this end there was set up side by side with the voluntary schools the machinery of a public school system. In every parish and borough the election of school boards was authorized, and to these bodies were imparted all the powers necessary for carrying on elementary schools, including that of borrowing money on the security of the school fund for building schoolhouses and of claiming rates (local property taxes) to make up any deficiency in their income from other sources. The election of school boards was left optional with the ratepayers, excepting that in any district where school provision was inadequate if the ratepayers failed to act, Government was to order the election. Thus at a critical moment in the national life the mandate of the state and the forces of municipal activity were turned to the service of education.

In the debate over this famous measure the question of religious instruction loomed large. As regards the board schools it was disposed of by the well-known Cowper-Temple clause forbidding them to teach any "religious catechism or religious formulary which is distinctive of any particular denomination." (Education act, 1870, sec. 14 (2).) The status of the voluntary schools in this respect remained intact, but they were bound by a "conscience clause" to permit the withdrawal from religious instruction of all children whose parents should so request. (Education act, 1870, sec. 7 (1-23).) As, however, the teachers in these schools were subject to religious tests the denominational spirit was all-pervasive.

It was admitted by both parties in 1870 that denominational schools under private control had no claim on the local taxes. On the other hand, the Government grant was allotted on the same basis to all schools. The amount in each case was determined by compliance with specified conditions as to buildings and teaching staff and “the results” of the teaching of elementary branches as reported by Government inspectors. It was further proportioned to the amount raised from local sources. These comprised, for voluntary schools, income from subscriptions, endowments, and fees; for board schools, local taxes and fees. The Government grant, which reached in 1870 the sum of £562,000 ($2,810,000), it was anticipated would eventually furnish 50 per cent of the school income. This proportion has, in fact, been greatly exceeded.

The Forster act of 1870, which carried the impetus of Gladstone's support, forms the groundwork of all subsequent school legislation in England. The limits of Government action in the matter have been extended from time to time, in particular by the laws of 1876 and 1880 establishing compulsory school attendance, and the law of 1891 providing an additional grant for schools remitting fees, following thus the lead of the chief school boards, which had already made elementary instruction free. Until 1897, however, when a special aid grant was allowed for voluntary schools, there was no departure from the underlying principles of the original law.

PROGRESS OF BOARD SCHOOLS.

The impressive fact in the history of the dual school system created by the Forster Act is the phenomenal growth of the board schools. In 1873 they enrolled less than 8 per cent of the school children; in 1883 the proportion had risen to 32.7 per cent; and in 1902, the year school boards were abolished, to 47.9 per cent. Moreover, the elected boards were readily responsive to public needs; they appealed to civic pride; they represented municipal interests. In the great manufacturing and commercial centers of the country they developed higher grade schools of modern type and evening schools for the benefit of the artizan classes. Cities were transformed by their influence. "I remember," said Mr. Birrell in the speech on presenting his bill, "what my own native town-city it has become in my absence was like before 1870. At least a quarter of its children were running idle, ragged, uneducated about its streets. The schools of the poor were nowhere to be seen. You could almost count on your fingers the lovers of education in that great place. Now the public elementary schools of Liverpool are among the best in the world. It has a training college connected with the Roman Catholics which attracts visitors from all parts of Europe, and it has a university, young indeed, but active and well endowed. Most of all 8159-06-2