These institutions, while corporate bodies, are under the authority and supervision of the state. Their relation to the state and the conditions under which they exist may be understood from their position in New York. Here the institutions were chartered by the state as benevolent societies, the buildings and grounds being presented, or the money for them collected, by the trustees, and the property reverting to the state if alienated to another use.[260] These schools are all subsidized from the state treasury in _per capita_ allowances for the pupils received;[261] and to some, especially the newer ones, there are general appropriations from time to time for buildings and the like. The regular grants, however, are often not sufficient for the cost of maintenance, which means that the institutions are instructing the children of the state, and maintaining them, at a cost to which the state contributes only a part. Such balances are covered from the endowment funds and private donations, but it would seem that the state gets a good bargain from the transaction.[262] On the other hand, it is to be remembered in connection with these schools that in the matter of the education of certain of the children of the state this duty is turned over to a private society. An anomalous situation, it would seem, is thus created, the state abdicating one of its most important functions as now conceived. The question, however, is not of great practical moment, and the matter may be likened to the general policy of the state when it contracts out for any of its work to be done. If economy and efficiency are secured, it is felt that there can be little ground for objection. A more important question arises in the matter of the granting of public money to a private institution. The matter of such state subsidies has already received considerable discussion,[263] and may receive even more attention in the future. Notwithstanding, these private institutions for the deaf were largely organized before the present attitude in the matter: they have in some cases really anticipated the duty of the state, and in a general consideration of the subject would probably be the last to be condemned. "DUAL SCHOOLS" "Dual schools," that is, schools in which there are departments both for the deaf and the blind, are found in ten states: California, Colorado, Florida, Idaho, Montana, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, and West Virginia.[264] In a number of other states the deaf and the blind were for a certain period educated together, either the two classes being provided for jointly from the first or a department for the blind being later created; but in time in these the two classes have been separated, and distinct schools for the blind set up.[265]