of the Board of Control even for supervising the legislative budget and the general scheme of expenditures.

One of the members of the Board of Control, says the report, stated that in his opinion the Board should be more responsible for the expenditures of the several higher institutions than it is at present, and that the federal funds as well as state appropriations should be under its jurisdiction. The Board always visits each institution during the making up of the budget. But after conferences with officers of the several insitutions, the Survey Committee has the very definite feeling that the estimates are made up on the most general information, and that no comparable statistics showing the relative needs of the institution are ever gathered by the

Board of Control.

Here the report declares that the State Board of Control is not the organization that should be determining the educational policies of the state. Another council needs to be created, and it should not be composed of the heads of the educational institutions. Almost

nothing could be accomplished by having them sit down together to prepare their budgets or to determine their educational programs. Very little more would be accomplished by having rep

resentatives of their boards constitute

an educational council to pass upon all questions of duplication or the offering of new lines of work. It is the opinion of the Survey Committee that a new board should be created consisting of representative laymen, selected by virtue of their ability and public spirit and interest in the development of education within the state, and that this board or council of perhaps nine members should be appointed without reference to any geographical locality and without relationship to any educational insti

tution. The Committee believes that this Board should be given supreme power over all determinations as to major and service lines of work to be offered at each institution, the establishment of new schools, and other matters pertaining to duplication and unnecessary expenses. It should be understood, however, that this board would have no control over the internal administration of affairs of any of the institutions of learning. It should also be understood that the legislature would possess the right, as it already possesses the power, to adopt legislation contrary to the action of the higher educational board.

years ago when a number of new teach-
ers colleges and the new technological
college at Lubbock were established.
That, it is asserted, is a perfectly blind
and futile policy, for it seems that
whenever a local community or a given
section of the state becomes sufficiently
powerful politically it may dip into the
state treasury for the establishment of
a new institution that will serve its local
interests. While Texas is a rich state
and can finance generously an adequate
system of higher institutions of learning,
at the same time, the treasury of the
state is not inexhaustible. Furthermore,
the multiplication of colleges not only
constitutes a drain upon
of
the treasury
the state, but it may mean an unneces-
sary duplication of courses as well as
of expense. Continuing, the report sets
forth:

IT is an obvious fact, and easily demonstrated by the history of higher education in Texas as well as by that of many other states, that a school once established has pressure brought upon it to expand. This expansion not only involves the offering of new courses to serve new needs, but it frequently means an extension of the courses already in existence into a longer program. For example, in the normal schools, the two-year courses expand into three-year courses, and the three-year courses into four-year courses, and they eventually become teachers colleges and receive the right to offer degrees. The privilege of granting a degree has been extended to many such institutions of learning when they were not prepared to give the work which would entitle the student ordinarily to receive a degree. A bachelor of arts or a bachelor of science degree should mean not merely four years in an institution but four years of work with a program which means progressive intellectual development term after term. It is possible in some institutions for one to get four years' work in subjects on the freshman and sophomore level. This should never entitle one to receive a degree. Furthermore, in most institutions when there is an expansion from a two to a three-year program, then into a four-year program, calling for a degree, there should be a corresponding improvement in the qualifications of the faculty. Some four-year colleges soon find it desirable to offer graduate work. First they grant the master's degree. Then they give consideration to the advisability of granting the degree of doctor of philosophy.

These tendencies, the report says, are all present in Texas even to the most casual observer, and the state has given no adequate consideration to them. The new colleges that have been established, even the junior colleges that are associated with the Agricultural and Mechanical College, have had the suggestion made that they should expand into colleges four years in length. If this tendency is allowed to develop wherever ambitions and energetic people are in charge of a given institution without check and without state plan, it is

ments have been developed at the University of Texas, the Agricultural and Mechanical College, and at the College of Industrial Arts, and will be no doubt at Lubbock. In fact it may well be that two of the largest opportunities this institution will have to serve the state will be through its work in training teachers in the division of liberal arts. It seems highly probably now that an attempt may be made to offer graduate work in this field at a number of these institutions. Just what type of work should be done at each institution has never been determined. What has been said about teacher

consistent program for the state presented to the legislature. A dynamic and forceful politician at the head of a higher institution of learning may be able to secure far more money for his institution than it should have in view of the needs of other institutions. A man who is an educational leader, who looks well after the internal organization, management and administration of his college, who spends his hours on the campus devoting himself diligently to the welfare of his institution, may find that his devotion to campus affairs and his neglect of political affairs have resulted in a loss in appropriation. This should not happen, says the report, and steps should be taken to prevent it.

WHAT every state needs, which supports its higher education by taxation,
is some agency which can assemble the facts about all the institutions and,
then, can present the facts both to the people and to the people's representa-
tives in the legislature in such a way that the legislators may feel that their
votes are based upon information and not upon prejudice. In the long
run, a tax-supported institution may go only so far in its development as
the tax payers approve. It is the state's interest to see that the taxpayers
have an adequate and impartial agency for keeping themselves informed
concerning the services which their taxes buy.

Important Aspects of American Education

A Symposium on Fundamentals

What are three of the most important aspects of American public school education to which public school officials should give immediate attention

P

UBLISHED statements, of late, pertaining to public education, which have attracted, seemingly, the most attention throughout the United States, have been uttered by persons who, although, justly prominent in educational work, are not identified with public school education. In raising the question, "What are three of the most important aspects of American public school education," the AMERICAN EDUCATIONAL DIGEST did not seek propaganda to promote any particular aspect of educational endeavor. It is the desire of this magazine to get at basic facts in the matter of educational procedure in public school work and give expression to them in the best form possible. Answers to the question by representative and prominent public school officials are varied, important, and breathe the spirit of enterprise which reflects highest ideals in public school administration. The answers are unusual, also, in authoritative professional assurance. A summary of all of the answers to the question raised by the DIGEST, involves the following 50 points:

The Old Grad and Autumn

BY GRANTLAND RICE

Each autumn I can see my ghost again

Come through the golden haze,

To send long spirals crashing down the field
From endless yesterdays;

Where haunting memories come back in flame
To fade before the swift rush of the game.

-The Herald Tribune.

School Problems and Progress

Importance of Research in Education. Not many years ago educators were persuaded with great difficulty to take up the idea of training persons to teach in the public schools, declared Dean James E. Russell, Teachers College, Columbia University, in a recent address, and it was only after educators discovered, he said, that such training would lead to a possibility of training leaders for later generations that professional training was accepted. Dean Russell pointed out, too, that the teacher

even now is far less trained than mem

THIS is the new $190,000 school building at Hopkins, Minnesota, which will soon be open for use. The building will accomodate 600 children and make a community house for 3000 citizens. The building will house both grade and junior high school pupils. It has a central auditorium seating 1000 and will be used as a community center for municipal and civic gatherings. In the east wing are the 13 grade rooms, a kindergarten, and a cafeteria. In the west wing is the study hall, seating 200, a library, 5 junior high recitation rooms, and a general science laboratory. It is the purpose of the people at Hopkins to develop a new community spirit as soon as the building is finished. The secretary of the board of education said: "First of all, parents will become more interested in the welfare of the school and the school child now that we have this concrete example of our progress. Then through using the school as a community center we will work for an increase in friendliness and general interest in the good of the whole town." R. J. Mayo is superintendent.

bers of any other profession of outstanding standards. In this connection, he said:

The work of the schools is done mainly by people with a minimum of training, midway between the apprentice plumber or other artisan and the sort required of all other professions. The teacher occupies a position, as to training, midway between the apprentice plumber or other artisan and the lawyer, doctor or engineer.

and it says we must have them because
we pay the bills and appoint the teach-
er. We are asked, also, to supply
character training, but who knows how
character is made? It may well be that

the greatest need is to be met with to-
day in research work is to get at the
basic facts of habit formation which
lies at the foundation of character.
The welfare of the world depends upon
teachers, and we are not going to live
up to our charge unless we think in

tronomy. Dr. William C. Bagley, professor of education, Teachers College, Columbia University, will direct the survey, and he will be assisted by Dr. George C. Kyte, associate professor of education, Washington University, St. Louis. The sum of $18,000 has been granted to carry on the work of the

committee.

In granting the research. fund, the general object of the commonwealth directors is to test the California