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Many of the school buildings erected during the past year, in design, arrangement and location, show an increasing appreciation of the art of architecture, and thus furnish evidence of true social progress. The educating influence of public buildings is never overlooked by an intelligent community, and the vandalism that mars or injures them is as much an effect as a cause of indifference toward that art that has always marked a high civilization.

The following cities and villages contain each a school-house and

site, valued at $10,000 or more:

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There are school-houses in Racine, Geneva, Lake Mills and Elkhorn, not reported, valued at more than $10,000 each, and steps have been taken to erect buildings at Baraboo, Oshkosh and Whitewater, which will cost from $15,000 to $30,000 each.

The amounts annually expended for school buildings have increased since the close of the war, and furnish evidence of that deepening interest that promises so much for the future.

For the years from 1861 to 1864 inclusive, the average amount annually expended was $86,203.; but, the amount levied in 1865, as reported in 1866, was $174,903. The amount for the year ending August 31, 1867, is $349,594.

These figures tell in emphatic language the lesson that the people have learned by the terrible civil conflict through which they have passed. While the country was struggling for existence, they could 2 SUP. PUB. INS.

only afford a tax of $86,203, annually, but, no sooner had peace smiled, than they doubled this amount, and, the next year, more than quadrupled it.

The cash value of school-houses and school-house sites as reported for 1866 and 1867, is as follows:

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The value of school apparatus, as reported, is $84,432. Many of our schools are furnished with globes,, outline maps and charts, while some are provided with apparatus for illustrating the truths of chemistry and natural philosophy.

XI. SCHOOL DISTRICT LIBRARIES.

The returns show that the present library system is a failure, so far as most of the districts of the State are concerned. The attention of the Legislature was called to this subject in the report from this department, for 1866. By a comparison of the returns for the past two years it is obvious that we cannot hope to secure the bene_ fits of one of the most efficient educating agencies of the present day, until we provide for town libraries.

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Number of volumes added during the year..
Amount expended for libraries during the year..

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$1,098

Whole number of volumes in the district libraries.. 26,667
Cash value of school district libraries..

23,758

.$21,893

$19,563

The adoption of the town organization for the management of the public schools would lead to the establishment of town libraries, but until this system is secured there is little probability that the annual returns will show any increased interest in providing suitable books for the young.

XII.--PRIVATE SCHOOLS.

In those villages and cities where the public schools are well conducted, there are few" private schools," and the numbers in attendance are annually diminishing, but where the public schools are taught by incompetent teachers, or where they are crowded, or under inefficient supervision, parents naturally provide for the education of their children by individual enterprise.

While any good school, public or private, should be sustained, we think that true educational progress is usually measured by the degree of interest manifested in supporting the public schools, and in almost any community, the public school, if it is as good as the private school, will push the latter from the ground. The true friends of education will hail with sincere gratification all good schools, and will labor to make the public schools so good that private schools cannot successfully compete with them.

The returns indicate a considerable increase in the number of these schools, but it is believed that the whole number was not correctly reported in 1866:

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The returns in regard to average daily attendance are entirely unreliable and it is difficult to obtain accurate information in regard to this class of schools.

XIII.-ACADEMIES.

The returns for the past year do not indicate any increase in the number of the academies, and the receipts from tuition are somewhat diminished. "Milton Academy," so widely and so favorably known has become Milton College, and is carrying forward the same good work in which it has been so long engaged. The few institutions of this class in our state, are among our best schools. They are to our country towns what the High Schools are to the cities. They afford to many the advantages for obtaining a good education, which the ungraded public school cannot provide, and every friend of education would rejoice to see them more prosperous than they are.

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The following statement is compiled from the returns made in accordance with chapter 27 of the General Laws of 1866:

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The prosperity of our colleges and universities is one of the most cheering signs of educational progress. Although they have not been the objects of a munificence so princely as have some of the colleges of the older states, yet they have been able to increase their corps of instructors, erect new buildings, add new departments of study and provide better laboratories and libraries for the use of their students.

The following statement embraces the principal statistics reported to this department as required by law:

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The Institutions from which reports have been received are Beloit College, Lawrence University, Milton College, Prairie du Chien College, Racine College, Wisconsin Female College, and the State University.

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If the numbers in the Reform School, the benevolent institutions of the State, and the Orphan Asylums of Milwaukee are added to the foregoing, we find that at least 262,000 of the youth of the State have received more or less school instruction during the past

year. We may, from data collected in the reports, form an estimate of the amount of absenteeism.

The whole number of persons over 4 and under 20 years of age in the State is 371,083. From this number let us deduct for the blind, deaf and dumb, insane, idiotic and others unable, from various causes, to attend school in any one year, 10 per cent. This reduces the number to 333,775. From this number we have to deduct those over 4 and under 20 years of age, who have attended the public schools, together with those who attended private schools, Academies, Colleges, the Normal School, and those in the Soldiers' Orphans' Home, the Reform School and the other public and private benevolent institutions in the State, leaving an aggreg of 255,631, which shows that 78,344 persons over 4 and under 20 years of age have not been in school during the past year.

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But as no child should attend school until he is 6 years of age, and as very few can after they are 17, let us ascertain the number between these ages. The number over 4 and under 6 years of age together with the number over 17 and less than 20 years of age 31.26 per cent. of the number between the ages of 4 and 20 years: hence the number over 6 and less than 17 years of age, who have not attended any of the schools reported to this Department during the past year is 53,858. After making liberal deductions for those attending private and denominational schools not reported; for those living where public schools are not yet organized; and for those enumerated, but whose parents have not been able to send them to

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