No. 8.

CIRCULAR to local superintendents of schools on the mode of apportioning the legislative school grant to school sections for the year 1852, and other matters:

SIR,-I have the honor to inform you that I have this day notified your county treasurer that the apportionment of the legislative school grant will be payable hereafter at the office of this department, Toronto, instead of at the office of the honorable the receiver general, Quebec.

The amounts apportioned to the several townships in your county will be paid as above intimated, as soon as your county clerk shall have transmitted to this office a certified abstract of the school accounts of such township as required by the 5th clause of the 27th section of the School Act, and provided that it shall appear from such abstract that the provisions of the law have been complied with by each township. For it must be distinctly understood, after my repeated intimations on the subject, that although apportioned, no part of the legislative school fund will be paid to any township in Upper Canada in which the requirements of the School Act have not been observed in regard both to the financial and general provisions of the law.

On receipt of the notification by you, from the county clerk, of the amount apportioned to your township, you will proceed to distribute the same, as authorised by law, among the several school sections entitled to receive it, according to the average attendance of pupils attending each common school, (the mean attendance of pupils for both summer and winter being taken,) as compared with the whole average number of pupils attending the common schools of such township."

As previously intimated, you will take the average attendance of pupils at the school for last year as the basis for distributing the legislative grant part of the school fund for the current year. Should any inequalities occur in this mode of distribution, the matter can be made a subject of consultation and suggestion at the school conventions which I hope [D. V.] to attend in the several counties of the province this autumn, with a view to its equalization, for the distribution of the municipal assessment part of the school fund at the end of the year.

In apportioning to new school sections you will take the average attendance of pupils for the first half year, as the basis of distribution of the legislative grant part of the school fund; the distribution of the assessment part of the school fund can be made upon the average attendance returns of the last half year, or otherwise, as may hereafter be determined.

As to the term "average attendance," I may here repeat the suggestions which I made on the subject in my circular of the 28th June, 1851, as follows:

"The second question which has been proposed by several local superintendents, relates to the mode of apportionment where the average attendance of pupils, and not school population, is made the basis of apportionment to the several school sections of a township. To ascertain the average attendance of pupils at a school for a given period, involves no difficulty; but I am asked, how the mean attendance of winter and summer is to be obtained?' I answer, that in the directions which have accompanied the blank forms of trustees' reports during the last two or three years, it is stated that the term summer in the report is intended to include the half year commencing in April and ending in September, and the term winter the half year commencing in October and ending in March;' or, in other words, the summer part of the school year commences in the spring, and the winter part in the autumn. Should the 'average winter attendance' of pupils in a school section be fifty, and should there be no school in such section during the summer, the mean attendance of pupils in winter and summer' in such section would be 25; but should there be a school in such section during the summer, and the average attendance be forty, then the mean attendance of fifty in the winter and forty in summer, would be forty-five."

In taking this average attendance as the basis of apportionment, you will, of course, omit so far as your information extends, those pupils who may have attended

from other sections. If they do not attend school in their own section, their numbers cannot be included in the returns upon which the distribution shall be based; as it is at variance with a principle of the school law that children should go into another section to obtain that education which the law requires to be provided in their own.

In regard to the difliculty of distributing the school fund equitably among union sections, I have given the subject a good deal of consideration. Viewed, however, in any aspect, it still presents several obstacles to our arriving at a satisfactory settlement of the question It is one which will very appropriately form a topic of remark and consultation at the contemplated school conventions next autumn. In the mean time, I would recommend the local superintendents of adjoining townships from which union sections are formed to meet and determine among themselves the sum or sums which shall be payable from the legislative apportionment and assessment parts of the school fund of each township concerned, in support of each union school; and also determine the manner in which such sum or sums shall be paid-due notice being given to the trustees and local treasurer. In case of a disagreement on the subject on the part of the local superintendents concerned, a joint statement of the case can be submitted to this department for final decision. But I expect you will have little difficulty on this point, às the school grant is apportioned the current year according to the general population returns of the province, as reported by the census commissioners, and not according to the school population returns contained in the local superintendents' annual reports.

These remarks on the modes of apportioning the school moneys, will, I hope, be sufficient to guide you in performing this part of your duty the current year. And I trust that my official engagements will not prevent me from conferring with you the ensuing autumn, upon this and other important subjects connected with the efficient working of our school system.

CIRCULAR NOTICE to local superintendents of schools, containing additional remarks, explanatory of the law relating to the distribution of the school fund to school sections, according to the average attendance of pupils :

By giving effect to the letter of the School Act, two changes take place in the apportionment and distribution of the school fund for the current year. It is apportioned to the several counties, cities, townships, towns and incorporated villages, according to the official census of the population at large, and not, as heretofore, according to the local returns of school population. It is distributed to the several school sections of each township, not, as heretofore, according to the reported school population of each section, but according to the average attendance of pupils at school in each section-the mean average attendance of winter and summer being taken. In the first general application of so important a principle of the school law, it may be proper to advert again to the origin and reasons of its introduction.

This provision of the present act (1st clause of the 31st section) was first submitted by the chief superintendent of schools to the Governor General in council, the 14th October, 1848, in transmitting the draft of a short bill designed to remedy some of the defects of the school law of 1846. The reasons assigned for the introduction of this new principle into the law relative to the distribution of school moneys, were as follows:

"The twelfth section proposes giving a discretionary power for the distribution of the school fund in each district to the several schools, according to attendance, instead of according to school population. The Bathurst district council has strongly advocated attendance as the basis of distributing the district school fund.

"As population has been invariably adopted in all the popular school laws with which I have met, as the basis of distributing the local school fund of each county or town, as well as the state or national fund to the several municipal localities, I hesitated in proposing any other until within a few months since, when I received the last annual report of the Massachusetts board of education, in which I find this distribution of the school fund recommended to the legislature with a force of argument, which, I think, cannot be resisted. I find experienced persons whom I have consulted of the same opinion. I find, on examination, that in many large school sections the attendance of pupils is often not larger than in small ones. Distributing the school fund according to attendance will therefore be favorable to small sections. I find also that the attendance of pupils in new and poor rural sections and townships is larger in proportion to the whole school population, than in older townships and cities or towns. The adoption of the proposed principle of distribution will, therefore, be favorable to the newer and poorer sections of the country. This is the result of a most extended enquiry into the statistics of school attendance as compared with school population in the state of Massachusetts; and the secretary of the state board of education concludes his argument on this point with the following impressive remarks:—

"It is most obvious, then, that an apportionment of the income of the school fund according to the average attendance of children upon the school-taking the mean attendance for both summer and winter schools-would conduce greatly to the benefit of the smaller, the more agricultural, and the more sparsly populated towns. it would distribute the bounty of the state on the principle of helping those who help themselves. It would confer the benefit of the income on the children who attend the public schools, instead of bestowing it in behalf of children who attend academies and private schools, and never enter public schools at all; and thus it would give a practical answer to the pertinent question, why money should be given to those who disdain to use it. And, lastly, it would be a new argument of great weight in many minds in favor of a more uniform attendance upon school; because the detention from school of any child who ought to be in it, would diminish the town's share of the income, and thus inflict palpable injustice, not only on the absentee, but on all other children in the

town.'"

In the annual school report of the superintendent of schools for the state of New York for 1850, we find the same provision recommended to the favorable consideration of the legislature of that state, in the following words:

"It is respectfully suggested to the legislature, whether the ratio of apportionment and of distribution of the school money might not advantageously be so changed as to have reference to the attendance of pupils upon the district schools, for a certain specified period during the preceding year, instead of being upon either population or the number of children actually residing in the district. By the adoption of this mode of distribution, strong inducements would be presented to the taxable inhabitants of the several districts, to place their children in the common schools, and to keep them there for a sufficient length of time to secure an additional share of the public money."

By an authority expressly given in the act to the chief superintendent of schools, the operation of this provision was suspended in 1850; and that suspension was repeated in 1851, in regard to most of the counties at the request of the county councils, in order that the fullest notice might be given to all parties concerned before its application. In the mean time, full explanations were given of its nature and operations, and all parties were advised to prepare for its introduction. After such a notification of eighteen months, it would not be in accordance with the spirit and objects of the school act for the chief superintendent to exercise the power of suspending the

operations of this clause a third year, though he has been requested to do so by a few municipal councils.

Several county councils requested that the operation of this provision of the law might not be suspended last year, in so far as their counties were concerned, and their requests were complied with.

Questions have been asked by several local superintendents respecting the mode of giving effect to this provision of the law. The substance of the answers to these questions may be here inserted.

As to ascertaining the mean average attendance of pupils in summer and winter, it may be sufficient to give the following extract from the official circular, dated 28th June, 1851, addressed by the chief superintendent to local superintendents of schools on this subject ;

"To ascertain the average attendance of pupils at a school for a given period, involves no difficulty; but I am asked, how the mean attendance of winter and summer is to be obtained?" I answer, that in the directions which have accompanied the blank forms of trustees' reports during the last two or three years, it is stated that 'the term summer in the report is intended to include the half year commencing in April and ending in September, and the term winter the half year commencing in October and ending in March;" or, in other words, the summer part of the school year commences in the spring, and the winter part in the autumn. Should the 'average winter attendance' of pupils in a school section be fifty, and should there be no school in such section during the summer, the 'mean attendance of pupils in winter and summer' in such section would be twenty-five; but should there be a school in such section during the summer, and the average attendance be forty, then the mean attendance of fifty in the winter and forty in the summer, would be forty-five.”

A local superintendent proposes a case in the following words:—

"Some schools are kept open only six months in a year-four months, perhaps, in winter, and two in summer. The question is whether we are to take the average of the time the school is kept open, or whether we are to extend the average over the whole year? For example, a school is kept open two months in summer, the average attendance during which (two months) is twenty pupils. The same school is kept open four months in winter, with an average attendance during which (four months) of thirty. The mean average attendance in said school for six months will be twentyfive pupils."

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“Or, "A school is kept open two months in summer, with an average attendance of twenty pupils for the two months-equal to an average attendance of 63 pupils for six months. The same school is kept open four months in the winter, with an average attendance of thirty pupils for the four months-equal to an average attendance of twenty pupils for six months. The mean average attendance of said school during the twelve months (or winter and summer) of said year, will be 133."

The question is, which of the above modes of taking the average attendance of pupils is the correct one? The answer is the latter, which agrees with the letter of the law, and the principle of the foregoing extract from the official circular of June 28, 1851; one object of this provision of the act being to encourage the keeping open schools in the summer as well as winter.

Another local superintendent has proposed another question, as follows:—

"One school is kept open six months of a year-three months in winter and three months in summer, with an average attendance of forty pupils during each three months. Another school is kept open twelve months in a year-six months in winter and six months in summer, with an average attendance of forty pupils during each six months Are both schools to receive alike? Or, is the latter to receive twice the amount of the former, having performed twice the amount of labor?"

The answer is, the latter school is entitled to twice as large a sum as the former; the principle of the law being to help those that help themselves, and in proportion as they help themselves.

I think the foregoing remarks are sufficient to illustrate the application of this provision of the school act to all the varieties of cases which exist in connection with the school sections throughout the province, while they show the equitable principle on which the provision itself is based.

It will be seen that this clause of the act does not apply to cities, towns and incorporated villages, in each of which there is but one fund, one interest, and one board of school trustees. Nor does it affect the apportionment of the school fund to townships, to each of which, as well as to cities, towns and villages, it is apportioned according to population. But it applies to the distribution of the school fund in each township to the several school sections of such township-based upon the principle of aiding each section according to its works.

APPENDIX C.

OFFICIAL ANSWERS by the Chief Superintendent of Schools to questions proposed by local school authorities in Upper Canada.

(I. Selection from replies to letters sent to the Department.)

Nearly three hundred letters per month are received at the Upper Canada Education Office, at Toronto; and most of these involve legal questions. To lessen the increasingly onerous correspondence of the department, and to consult the convenience of many parties, the chief superintendent thought it advisable to select and insert in the Journal of Education, a score or two of the hundreds of answers which have been given by him to letters of local school authorities involving questions and proceedings under the school law. For convenient reference by parties concerned, the answers were numbered as follows:

NUMBER 1.

A Townreeve inquires as to whether a township council can alter the boundaries. of school sections without the actual consent of the majority of the inhabitants of the several school sections concerned,-remarking that if such were the case, no alterations would ever be made, however necessary, as a majority of one or other of the sections concerned would always be opposed to such alterations. He also wishes to know whether trustees can levy and collect a rate, after the adoption, by the majority of a school meeting, of a resolution against "all taxation," in order to prevent the trustees from keeping open a school longer than the public school fund would defray the expenses of The following is the answer to his questions:

"1. The object of the 4th clause of the 18th section of the act was not to deprive a township council of the power of altering the boundaries of any school section without the consent of the majority of such school section; the object of the act was to prevent changes from being clandestinely made in the boundaries of school sections, without giving all parties concerned notice of any alteration or alterations proposed, that they might have an opportunity of putting the council in possesion of all they might wish to say for or against such alterations. But, after all parties have thus had an opportu nity of a fair hearing, the township council has authority to make any alterations in the