County Superintendents

ÏUq Lansing correspondent of the Free l'reas writes: A nuiuber of bilis aio pending intended to ropoal either wholly or partially tha present law creating tbo office of County Superintendente of Schools, and although at the opening of the session it seemed appnrent that tho opponents of tho present system would succeed in having tho law repealed, it is now quite aa confidently assorted by those who are interosted in tbo matter that the primary school law will not be materially cbanged in any respect. There has been no particular chango of opinión in regard to the inefficiency of mauy of the county superiutendents, but the friends of tho rneasuro havo shown quite conelusively that the systera ia not to blame for errors of administration on the part of some of tho incumbents of the oflice. A great complaint has boen that the direct effect of the county guperintendency was to enhance the wages of teachers. In combatting this idea Deputy Superintendent of Public Instruction Cortland B. ötabbius, in hia report now in coursu of preparation, shows that the incroaso in the pay of teachers has not been as great correspondingly as in other departments of labor, and that whatever the increase it Í3 duo to economical caus.es and not to any collusion between school officors and teachers. STEEBIXS' riGUKES. According to tho researches of Mr. Stobbins, in 1872 the wages of' male teachsvs werobutsixty-one oents a-month highcr than . the average of five" years sinco the system wout into operation. Last year the wages of lady teaciiers wero 1 70 a month more than the average for tho last five years. During the same year the number of womon teachers had increased 321 and of men teachers 61, showing a domand augmonting in the proportion to the opening of new schools. Xhe increase in the wages of women employed in tho schools is greater, and deservedly so, than thoso of men, and yet they havo not been iucreased in a ratio eorresponding to the pay of women in other emploympnts. Every citizen can casily inake for hiniself a comparison beteen the vages of teachers and those of women in industrial pursuits and trades, and even as domestica. That the pay of teachers has iocreMod is not tho fault of county tuperintendents is shown by the fact that in tho whole five yeara sinco tho system went into opperation the wages of men employed as teachers increased on an average but $5 08 a month, while in the previoua four vears the incroase was lílo 86 a month. Witb regard to women, whose increased wagos has beon the standing eomplaiiit of those most opposed to the county superintcndency, it appcars in the whole iivo year sincu the system wout into operatioa tho pay of women teachers has iiiereascd but $7 21 per nionth, wliile in the foni precoding the inereaso was %1 04 showing an inorease of twenty oents in a poriod of time a year longer. IIOW IT IS TO-DAT. As conolusively showing how groundless is tho acousati'ou that the county supeiintondency has laad a tendency to raise teachers' wagef, Mr. Stebbins says that during the past yoar tho returns from tho various districts show a decrease in the wages ot' men of eighty-one cents a ruonth, and in tho wages of womon teachers of forty-one conts a month. This reduction in tho scliool year just closed would reduce proportionally the aggregate of teachers wagos the sum of f29,269 75,