A Territorial tax of 15 cents on the $100 was to be levied, and the county board of supervisors was ordered to levy a county school tax of not less than 50 nor more than 80 cents on the $100, which “shall be added to the county tax and collected in the same manner and paid into the county treasury as a special fund.”
The Territorial board of education was reconstituted, and was now made up of the superintendent as president and secretary, with the governor and Territorial treasurer as the other members. Their duties were of the same character as those of the earlier board, while a bid for incoming teachers was made by providing that “such professional teachers as may be found upon examination, or by diplomas from other States or Territories requiring similar qualifications, to possess the requisite scholarship and culture” might have their diplomas countersigned by the Territorial superintendent and these then became valid for life unless formally revoked.
The superintendent was required, among other duties, to apportion Territorial school funds according to the number of children 6 to 21 years of age; he was to make an annual visit to each county and publish an annual report. It was made the duty of the county superintendent to distribute the county funds to the school districts in proportion to attendance during the three months previous.
In other respects the school law remained largely as it was, except that the salary of the probate judges when acting as county school superintendents was raised from $100 to $250 per year, and in 1881 (ch. 33) this was still further increased by dividing the counties into four classes according to the number of school districts and paying the superintendents from $250 to $1,000 per annum, according to the size of their territory.
Another section of this law—an echo of the struggle in 1877 against the proposed union of church and state—was the thirty-eighth, which declares:
No books, tracts, or papers of a sectarian or denominational character shall be used or introduced in any school established under the provisions of this act; nor shall sectarian or denominational doctrine be taught therein; nor shall any school whatever receive any of the public school funds which has not been taught in accordance with the provisions of this act.
It is clear that this new law reorganized the school system in a way which looked toward greater centralization and efficiency. The Territorial superintendent was now a separate official, with large supervisory powers. The county superintendency was not yet a separate office, but large supervisory powers were put into the hands of the probate judge, if he could find time and place to exercise them, but under the circumstances and with the large counties this was a practical impossibility.
