nance of the high school was legal. Mr. Twitmyer says that the school continued teaching the very same subjects, but the school was given another name.

Remedial legislation, 1895.-With this challenge the legislature took steps in the next session to make certain the legality of the high school. This was sought in defining certain powers of the State board of education in the following words:

The State board of education shall have power:

To prepare a course or courses of study for the primary, grammar, and high-schoo departments of the common schools, and to prescribe such rules for the general gov ernment of the common school as shall secure regularity of attendance, prevent truancy, secure efficiency, and promote the true interests of the common schools. 22

In a separate section of the same act it was stated that "All common schools shall be taught in the English language" and that instruction shall be given in reading, penmanship, arithmetic, etc., and such other studies as may be prescribed by the State board of education.23 The only change from previous statutes was in vesting the authority to prescribe other subjects in the State board of education instead of the local board of directors.

5. Course of Study Adopted by the State Board of Education in 1896

Immediately after the enactment of legislation clearing up the moot poin regarding the right to use common-school funds for the support of high schools, and also authorizing the State board of education to prepare a course of study for the high schools, the board set to work to prepare such a course. The course was organized and adopted in 1896. The course is reproduced in the section on the accreditation of high schools.

6. Additional Legislation

Clinching legislation re "common schools" in 1897.-In 1897 the legislature enacted a complete revised code relating to education. In order to clinch the right of school districts to use the common-school fund for the support of high schools the following statutes were enacted:

SEC. 1.-A general and uniform system of public schools shall be maintained throughout the State of Washington, and shall consist of common schools (in which all high schools shall be included), normal schools, technical schools, University of Washington, school for defective youth and such other educational institutions as may be established and maintained by public expense.24

"Laws of Washington, 1895, ch. CL, second, p. 375.

Laws of Washington, 1895, ch. V, sec. 1, p. 8.

Laws of Washington, 1897, ch. CXVIII, sec. 1, p. 356.

Apparently in order to allay all doubts and make the interpretation absolutely clear the following section was added in the same act:

Sec. 64. Common schools shall include all district grades, and high schools that are maintained at public expense in each school district and under the control of boards of directors. Every common school, not otherwise provided for by law, shall be open to the admission of all children between the ages of six and twenty-one years residing in that school district.

These changes in the laws were made without a change in the constitution. The first such interpretation was made in 1895, within 5 years after the constitution was adopted. As some still doubted a second enactment in 1897 made the matter so absolutely unequivocal that no possibility of doubt remained. From that date high schools have been a part of the common schools no less certainly than have the elementary schools.

Distinction between consolidated and union high school districts.-The legislature of 1897 also sought to clarify the meaning of union districts organized merely for the purpose of extending boundaries and con solidating wealth for the purpose of bettering school conditions for all pupils in the consolidated area. These unions were made distinct from the union districts organized only for high-school purposes. The two statutes following bring out the distinctions evidently intended by the legislature. The first relates to the consolidated district and the second to the union high-school district. The second was passed in 1901.

The directors of such union districts shall determine what grade or grades of pupils shall attend such union schools, and shall determine the course of study that shall be pursued in such schools: Provided, That such course of study shall not be inconsistent with the laws of this State.25

These are really consolidated districts and are so designated in other parts of the same act. They are not the "union high schools" of today. Such districts of course might contain high schools and usu ally have done so. The statute relating to the union high school districts authorized directors—

at their discretion, to admit pupils residing in such union district, belonging to (a) grade lower than the high-school grades but no pupil belonging to a grade lower than the seventh shall ever be admitted to any such union school.

The course of study had to be approved by the State superintendent of public instruction.

Union districts were to participate in the common-school fund the same as other districts. As an inducement to support such high

25 Laws of Washington, 1897, ch. CXVIII, sec. 11, p. 360.

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schools the statute specified that "The superintendent of public instruction shall apportion annually to each union district the sum of one hundred ($100) dollars for each grade above the grammar grade maintained in such schools." 26

Bearing of the Kalamazoo case. Thus a good deal of doubt has been expressed regarding the date when high schools were accorded legal status in Washington. It is highly probable that if the matter had been passed upon by the Supreme Court of the United States high schools would have been declared legal in Washington from the date of admission as a Territory.

Undoubtedly the celebrated "Kalamazoo case" would have been cited as a guiding precedent. In many States high schools had been established and paid for out of common-school funds even though the laws made no mention of high schools. Some people questioned the legality of the procedure. In 1872 a test case was made in Michigan. Suit was brought by Charles E. Stuart et al. vs. School District o. 1 of the village of Kalamazoo. The complainants sought to restrain the collection of taxes voted for the support of the high school and the payment of the school superintendent. The supreme court of the State held that it was legal to do so. A part of the text of the decision is as follows:

Neither in our State policy, in our constitution, or in our school laws, do we find the primary school districts restricted in the branches of knowledge which their officers may cause to be taught, or the grade of instruction that may be given, if their voters consent in regular form to bear the expense and raise the taxes for the purpose. 27

A recent decision of the State supreme court in North Carolina even declared that a community might establish and support a junior college if the people voted to bear the expense. Knight comments on the "Kalamazoo case":

This decision became the legal precedent for other States and greatly influenced the development of the high school at public expense, although some of the States were slower than others to acknowledge the responsibility. Today the high school is generally accepted as a part of the educational system of each State. 28

High school laws of 1909.-The various statutes relating to high schools enacted from time to time during a period of over half a cen tury have been considered at some length because they illustrate so admirably the tortuous course of evolution of social institutions in a democracy. Whatever may have been the intent of the framers of the constitution of 1854 two factions soon developed. One was in

*Laws of Washington, 1901, ch. CLXXVII, secs. 3, 4, pp. 372, 373.

favor of the development of such instruments of education as the needs of new days developed, the other wedded to the past and holding rigorously to the literal interpretation of the constitution. The strict constructionists seem to have had a legal advantage through the wording of the article in question which stated that:

The public-school system shall include common schools, and such high schools, nor mal schools, and technical schools as may hereafter be established. But the entire revenue derived from the common-school fund, and the State tax for common schools shall be exclusively applied to the support of the common schools.

The constitution reads today as in 1854. Subsequent statutes have decreed that the high schools are an integral part of the common. school system, but that part of the constitution has never been repealed or amended. Such is one of the fortunate aspects of a demo cratic government. Incidentally a more exact use of English would doubtless have set school organization ahead 50 years in Washington. The school law of 1909 was a far-reaching one in clarifying many obscure passages, strengthening weak statements, in providing cer tain needed remedies, and in the establishment of new needed measures. The bulk of the present school code was enacted in 1909 in whole or in part. Because of the significance of that law several items relating to present-day high schools are stated here. In many cases they appear strikingly similar to statutes enacted in 1877 and during the next quarter century.

To clinch the meaning of common schools as described by the people, regardless of the wording of the constitution it was enacted that

A general and uniform system of public schools shall be maintained throughout the State of Washington, and shall embrace common schools (including high and ele mentary schools, schools for special help and discipline, schools or departments for special instruction), technical schools, the University of Washington, the State College of Washington, State normal schools, State training schools, schools for defective youth, and such other educational institutions as may be established by law and maintained at public expense.29

The present statute defines a common school as follows:

Common schools shall include schools that are maintained at public expense in each school district and under the control of boards of directors. Every common school, not otherwise provided for by law, shall be open to the admission of all chil dren between the ages of six and twenty-one years residing in that school district.30

Laws of Washington, 1909, sec. 1, p. 230.

* Ibid., 261.

This was challenged. In the supreme court, however, it was decided that

A common school, within Const., art. 9, sec. 2, means one that is common to all children of proper age, and capacity, free and subject to, and under the control of the qualified voters of the district.31

Since 1909 the distinction between union districts and consolidated districts has been perfectly clear in the statutes. The definitions expressed in the law are stated here:

Any school district which has been formed by the consolidation of two or more school districts shall be designated as a consolidated school district.32

Note that the type or types of schools that may be supported are not restricted. Another section expressly states that

Any two or more contiguous or adjacent districts of the second and third class may form a union high school district in the manner and with all the powers provided by law for union high school districts.33

7. The Growth of High Schools in Washington

The last half century has witnessed the most marvelous expansion in education during all history. The most striking phase of that development has been in secondary education. The rise of universities of the Middle Ages challenges our admiration because of the foundations laid for research and investigation. The establishment of common schools in America makes us all debtors because they made democracy possible. The growth of almost universal secondary education in America has been an adolescent drama which might well be the theme for some poet laureate to paint in enduring song.

The youth of Washington have more than shared in this entrancing drama during the 5 decades just closed. In the first decade of statehood only the seeds of high-school education were planted. A few far-visioned communities like Dayton, Olympia, Seattle, Spokane, Tacoma, Chehalis, and Centralia began to furnish their boys and girls more than the elementary schools offered. They graded their schools and introduced high-school subjects, sometimes 1 year, sometimes 2, and even more. "Higher departments" emerged here and there and early in the eighties an occasional one was called a high school. Some narrow-minded obstructionists attempted to outlaw the high schools. However, there were those who believed that the founders

1 School District v. Bryan, 51 Wash. 498. Laws of Washington, 1909, sec. 5, p. 264. "Laws of Washington, 1923, sec. 1, p. 74.