GOVERNMENT AND EDUCATION
Government.—The Constitution of New Jersey divides the government into three departments,—legislative, executive, and judicial. The legislative department is vested in the legislature, which is composed of the senate and the general assembly. The senate is composed of one senator from each county, elected by the voters for three years. The general assembly is composed of sixty assemblymen apportioned among the counties according to population and elected by the voters for one year. The executive power is vested in the governor, who is elected for a term of three years. A person cannot be governor for two successive terms. The judicial power is vested in many courts, of which the principal are the court of errors and appeals, which is the highest court, court of chancery, supreme court, circuit court, and courts of common pleas or county courts. The judges are appointed by the governor with the approval of the senate.
State Capitol, Trenton
State Capitol, Trenton
The principal state officers, besides the governor, are secretary of state, state treasurer, state comptroller, and attorney-general.
The state is divided into twenty-one counties, which are again divided into townships, cities, boroughs, and towns. Each of these has its own government, which is administered in accordance with laws passed by the legislature. The principal county officers besides the judge are sheriff, county clerk, surrogate, coroner, county collector, and members of the board of freeholders who are elected by vote of the people.
The counties maintain courthouses, penitentiaries, farms or homes for the aged poor, and may provide parental homes or detention homes for juvenile delinquents or juvenile witnesses.
The state is represented in the United States Congress by two senators and twelve representatives.
State Normal, Montclair
State Normal, Trenton
State Normal, Newark
Education.—The Constitution requires that "the legislature shall provide for the maintenance and support of a thorough and efficient system of free public schools for the instruction" of the children of the state. It is because of this requirement and the desire of the people to enforce it that the state has such excellent schools.
The principal officers of the state department of public instruction are the members of the state board of education, the commissioner of education, and four assistant commissioners. Each county has a county superintendent of schools, and each city and large town has its own board of education and superintendent of schools or supervising principal.
Nassua Hall, Princeton University
Nassua Hall, Princeton University
In the school year 1919-1920 the number of pupils who attended the public schools was 591,798. The number of teachers was 18,873. Because of good schools and of compulsory school attendance, there were in 1910, only 113,502 illiterates, or persons of ten years of age and over who could not read or write, or 5.6 per cent of the total population. Of these illiterates, 93,000 were of foreign birth and less than one per cent were of native white parentage.
State normal schools for the training of teachers are located at Trenton, Montclair, Newark, and Glassboro. City normal schools are maintained for the same purpose by Jersey City, Paterson, Trenton, and Camden. The state maintains summer schools for the preparation of teachers and makes appropriations to the State Agricultural College, a department of Rutgers College at New Brunswick. Special schools maintained by the state are: Farnum School, at Beverly, which is associated with the Trenton Normal School; the School for the Deaf at Trenton; and the Manual Training and Industrial School for Colored Youths at Bordentown. Higher institutions of learning which are located in New Jersey are: Princeton University at Princeton, Rutgers College at New Brunswick, Stevens Institute of Technology at Hoboken, St. Peter's College at Jersey City, College of St. Elizabeth at Convent Station, Mount St. Mary's College at Plainfield, Drew Theological Seminary at Madison, Seton Hall College at South Orange, Upsala College at Kenilworth, Bloomfield Theological Seminary at Bloomfield, and College of Jersey City.
The metropolitan district including northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York
The metropolitan district including northeastern New Jersey and southeastern New York