TABLE OF CONTENTS. Income from Government grant and local sources.. The education bill of 1906-The main clauses, with discussions in the House of Com- Facilities for denominational instruction in transferred schools.. Extended facilities for denominational instruction in transferred schools... Page. T 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 concerned— these 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, 5 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 |