PREFACE Underlying every educational problem is the financial one, that of school support. Adequate buildings, better trained teachers, a more vital curriculum can be provided only as sufficient revenues are, first, furnished and, second, distributed in a manner to secure results commensurate with expenditure. Indeed, there is little doubt that a large proportion of the educational difficulties existing in the majority of our states are due to their antiquated systems of school finance. Methods and policies inherited from colonial days are still followed in many of our states, despite the fact that their inevitably disastrous effects have been pointed out again and again by students of school finance. Rapidly growing demands for vastly increased expenditures make reform imperative. But before we can undertake to formulate and adopt new laws and new policies it is necessary to know those now in force and the effects of the same. Nevertheless, at the present time such knowledge is exceedingly difficult to obtain. Indeed there are states in our Union in which not a single official report shows the total expenditure for schools. In view of all these facts, and in view of the long standing · need in practically every state in the Union of a thorough-going revision of school finance laws, policies, and methods, it is surprising that the subject has received so little attention from scientific students of education. It is true that several important and valuable studies have appeared, but these have limited themselves either to certain selected aspects of the problem, or else to a few types of funds. What is needed first of all is a complete and detailed study of the systems of school support in a number of individual states. Such complete studies must take into account not two or three but every type of school fund, state, county, and district, permanent and current. It is because Miss Kelley has done this in her study of the history of school support in Minnesota that her work is a distinct contribution to the scientific literature of an all important subject. Not only is it a distinctive contribution, but one which may, both in its method and in its scope, well serve as a model for similar studies of other states. 506604 Miss Kelley has not confined herself to a description of Minnesota's existing system of school support, but has traced the genesis of this system from the time of the State's admission into the Union. Consequently her study presents us with both an account of what now is and an explanation of why it is. Her work throughout bears the marks of indefatigable care, conscientiousness, and zeal. To one who has long been deeply interested in the problems of school finance and who has followed closely the development of the present study, it seems not too much to say that the importance of Miss Kelley's study and the quality of her work can scarcely fail to gain quick recognition, and that her history of school support in Minnesota will be given a place both permanent and honorable among scientific studies of the economic aspects of public education. FLETCHER HARPER SWIFT THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA, OCTOBER 11, 1920. Requirements for participation in the annual fund.. 25 Forbidden uses of the annual fund. Deficits in the annual fund... 333333333 Local bond issues. Disbursement of local school funds. Disbursement of the proceeds of local taxes. Disbursement of fines and forfeits. Origin of the permanent school fund.. Origin of the swamp land fund. Growth of the permanent funds. Adjustment of swamp land claims. 45 |