intendents was continued at $100 per year. The law of 1875 provided also that a county board, of which the county superintendent was to be the chairman, be appointed “for the purpose of examining applicants and granting certificates of qualification to teachers” covering spelling, reading, grammar, arithmetic, geography, physiology, “and such other studies as may be by said board deemed necessary.”[1]
Under the recommendations of Gov. Safford the first compulsory school act was passed in 1875.[2] It was, however, a mild one. It required children between 8 and 14 to attend a public school for at least 16 weeks in each school year, but there were numerous exemptions. They might be taught in private schools or at home, and were released from the obligation to attend if they lived more than 2 miles from the schoolhouse. As a matter of fact, the children were generally as willing to attend school as the people were to furnish schoolhouses. It was sometimes even impossible to enforce the act because of the lack of accommodations.
The most successful years of this period, the time when the schools reached their high-water mark, was in 1875 and 1876.[3]
The actual accomplishments of the schools during that time, as reported by Gov. Safford, show that there were 2,508 children of school age in the first of these years and 2,955 in the second. The enrollment was 568 and 1,213, respectively. Men still predominated as teachers, and in 1876 received on an average $110 per month of 28 days; for the same period women averaged $90. In 1875 the State tax produced $4,690, the local tax $9,232, and other funds $14,837, making a total of $28,760; in 1875–76 the total was $31,449. In 1875 the total expenses were $24,152; in 1876, $28,744. One schoolhouse was erected in Prescott, costing $17,339.30; one was built in Tucson out of private contributions costing $9,781.96. It was thought—
that very nearly 50 per cent of the children in the Territory can now read and write. Every district in which there are sufficient children is supplied with a good free school. Many schoolhouses have been erected that would do credit to the older States. Considering the short time schools have been established and the many obstacles they have had to overcome, the situation, it is thought, is very encouraging.[4]
The relations of church and state had not yet been definitely settled, however. So earnest was Gov. Safford in his effort to main-
- ↑ Sess. Laws, 1875, pp. 80–90.
- ↑ Sess. Laws, 1875, pp. 40–42.
- ↑ See reports of Gov. Safford to the United States Commissioner of Education and printed in his reports as follows: 1870, p. 318; 1871, p. 377; 1872, pp. 365–366; 1873, pp. 425–428; 1874, pp. 461–462; 1875, pp. 467–469; 1876, pp. 431–433; 1877, p. 275. The Commissioner of Education gives these years as running for 1874—75 and 1875–76, but Gov. Safford repeats them as of January to December, 1875 and 1876.
- ↑ Rept. U. S. Commis. of Educ., 1876, pp. 431–432. See also Gov. Safford’s annual reports on the schools for 1875 and 1876 (Tucson, 1877).
