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COMMON SCHOOLS.

There are in the state 9062 school districts, and of this number 8630 have complied with the condition of the statue, by having sohools kept by an inspected teacher, and making returns to the commissioners.of common schools.

One hundred and ninety new districts have been formed during the year ending on the 1st of January, 1830, and the number of districts which have complied with the statute so as to participate in the public money, has increased 338 in the same time.

There are in the districts from which reports have been received 497,503 children over 5 and under 16 years of age; and in the common schools of the same districts, 499,424 scholars have been taught during the year preceding the 1st of January, 1830; the general average of instruction having been about eight months.

The number of children over 4 and under 16, excluding New-York and Albany from the estimate, has increased 24,194 since the last annual report; and the number of children taught in the common schools of the state, has increased 19,383 in the same time.*

There are seven counties in the state, viz. Oneida, Onondaga, Otsego, Jefferson, Cayuga, Genesee, and Monroe, in each of which more than 15,000 scholars are reported as having been instructed during the year; the first of these counteis, Oneida, has returned 20,265 between 5 and 16, and 19,731 children taught. Including the foregoing, there are twenty-four counties in the state, in each of which more than 19,000 children have been taught during the year embraced in the returns.

There are one hundred and fifteen towns, in each of which more than one thousand scholars are instructed; several towns report more than fifteen hundred, and a few large towns make returns of more than two thousand scholars taught annually.

There are eighty towns in which twenty or more school districts are organized in each; several of the towns have more than thirty districts.

* The census of children residing in the districts, includes all of the age of 16, instead of 15, as heretofore; in consequence of this, the census of the children more nearly equals the whole number taught, than in former years. Excluding the cities of New York and Albany entirely from the estimate, and it leaves 492,451 children between 5 and 16, and 491,368 children taught; showing an excess of the children between 5 and 16, over those taught, of 1803.

The general average of the number of districts, including all the towns, is 11 1-2 for each town in the state. The average number of scholars instructed in the districts from which returns have been received, is a fraction more than fifty-seven for each school. This estimate, as well as that relating to the number of children instructed, is based upon the whole number of scholars on the rolls of the schools, without reference to the time which each scholar had attended; and it is not to be understood that each one of the 499,424 scholars returned, has had 8 months of instruction during the year; but that this is the aggregate number of scholars on the rolls of the schools, and receiving more or less instruction; and that 1630 schools have been kept open for the reception of scholars, an average period of eight out of the 12 months.

The first returns under the present sohool systsm were made in 1816. There were reported in that year 2631 schools, in which 140,106 chil. dren were instructed. The increase of the number of schools returned has been 5999 in fifteen years, and the increase of the number of scholars instructed has been 339,318. in the same period. The number of children returned in 1816, between the ages of 5 and 15, was 176,449; the increase since that time has been 321,054. The school act was revised and new forms were adopted in 1819; so that in 1821, the system was in fair operation; and since that period the average annual increase of the children between 5 and 15, has been about 17,000, and the average increase of the number of scholars instructed, has been about 20,000 each year, for the last eleven years.

Of

During the year preceding the first of July, 1830, the public money received by the commissioners of the towns and apportioned to the districts, which had made returns, amounted to $269,713 36 cents. this sum $100,000 were paid from the state treasury-$124,556 04 were raised by tax upon the several towns, and $14,095 32 were de rived from local funds possessed by certain towns.

There is now in the treasury, belonging to the capital of the Common School Fund, $13,463 15 cents, which, by the preseut statute, is to be invested in any of the stocks of the state, at the market price of the

same.

The productive capital of the school fund now amounts to $1,666,743 66 cents. The revenue actually received into the treasury on account of this fund for the past year, has been $100,687 60 cents. This is the first year in which the revenue of the fund has produced the sum re quired for the annual distribution. The revenue of the coming year is estimated by the Comptroller at $101,350.

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