Part 11 (2/2)

C - Number of incorporated and unincorporated Academies and Private Schools returned in 1858.

D - Estimated attendance in Academies and Private Schools in 1857-8.

E - Estimated amount of tuition paid in Academies and Priv. Schools in 1857-8.

=============+=============+========+=====+=======+============ TOWNS. | A | B | C | D | E -------------+-------------+--------+-----+-------+------------ Beverly, | $5,748 20 | 1,114 | 1 | 10 | $100 00 Bradford, | 2,416 47 | 513 | 2 | 84 | 1,720 00 Danvers, | 14,829 52 | 2,066 | 1 | 40 | 360 00 Marblehead, | 7,311 10 | 1,188 | 6 | 160 | 1,390 00 Cambridge, | 37,420 86 | 4,710 | 14 | 400 | 15,000 00 Medford, | 7,794 44 | 837 | 5 | 130 | 3,800 00 Newton, | 12,263 50 | 1,138 | 8 | 308 | 22,800 00 Amherst, | 2,142 80 | 536 | 5 | 121 | 3,934 00 Springfield, | 27,324 84 | 3,864 | 6 | -- | -- Greenfield, | 2,627 50 | 589 | 2 | 25 | 1,800 00 Dorchester, | 22,338 51 | 1,795 | 1 | 31 | 600 00 Quincy, | 8,861 46 | 1,260 | 2 | 20 | 225 00 Roxbury, | 50,000 00 | 4,400 | 25 | 561 | 10,600 00 New Bedford, | 36,074 25 | 3,548 | 20 | 434 | 15,074 00 Hingham, | 4,904 13 | 728 | 2 | 71 | 1,717 56 Provincetown,| 3,147 26 | 689 | -- | -- | -- Edgartown, | 2,578 63 | 380 | 8 | 96 | 200 00 Nantucket, | 11,596 27 | 1,198 | 13 | 259 | 3,466 23 -------------+-------------+--------+-----+-------+------------ Totals, | $259,379 74 | 30,553 | 121 | 2,750 | $82,786 79 =============+=============+========+=====+=======+============

The Legislature of 1834 acted with wisdom and energy. The school fund having been established, the towns were next required to furnish answers to certain questions that were subst.i.tuted for the requisition of the statute of 1826, and any town whose committee failed to make the return was to be deprived of its share of the income of the school fund, whenever it should be first distributed. (Res. 1834, chap. 78.)

Those measures were in the highest degree salutary. There were 305 towns in the state, and returns were received from 261. There was still a want of accuracy and completeness; but from this time forth the state secured what had never before been attained,--intelligent legislation by the government, and intelligent cooperation and support by the people.

In December, 1834, the Secretary of the Commonwealth prepared an aggregate of the returns received, of which the following is a copy:

Number of towns from which returns have been received, 261 Number of school districts, 2,251 Number of male children attending school from four to sixteen years of age, 67,499 Number of female children attending school from four to sixteen years of age, 63,728 Number over sixteen and under twenty-one unable to read and write, 158 Number of male instructors, 1,967 Number of female instructors, 2,388 Amount raised by tax to support schools, $810,178 87 Amount raised by contribution to support schools, 15,141 25 Average number of scholars attending academies and private schools, 24,749 Estimated amount paid for tuition in academies and private schools, $276,575 75 Local funds--Yes, 71 Local funds--No, 181

Thus, by the inst.i.tution of the school fund, provision was made for a system of annual returns, from which has been drawn a series of statistical tables, that have not only exhibited the school system as a whole and in its parts, but have also contributed essentially to its improvement.

These statistics have been so accurate and complete, for many years, as to furnish a safe basis for legislation; and they have at the same time been employed by the friends of education as means for awakening local interest, and stimulating and encouraging the people to a.s.sume freely and bear willingly the burdens of taxation. It is now easy for each town, or for any inhabitant, to know what has been done in any other town; and, as a consequence, those that do best are a continual example to those that, under ordinary circ.u.mstances, might be indifferent. The establishment and efficiency of the school-committee system is due also to the same agency. There are, I fear, some towns that would now neglect to choose a school committee, were there not a small annual distribution of money by the state; but, in 1832, the duty was often either neglected altogether, or performed in such a manner that no appreciable benefit was produced. The superintending committee is the most important agency connected with our system of instruction. In some portions of the state the committees are wholly, and in others they are partly, responsible for the qualifications of teachers; they everywhere superintend and give character to the schools, and by their annual reports they exert a large influence over public opinion. The people now usually elect well-qualified men; and it is believed that the extracts from the local reports, published annually by the Board of Education, const.i.tute the best series of papers in the language upon the various topics that have from time to time been considered.[4] By the publication of these abstracts, the committees, and indeed the people generally, are made acquainted with everything that has been done, or is at any time doing, in the commonwealth. Improvements that would otherwise remain local are made universal; information in regard to general errors is easily communicated, and the errors themselves are speedily removed, while the system is, in all respects, rendered h.o.m.ogeneous and efficient.

Nor does it seem to be any disparagement of Ma.s.sachusetts to a.s.sume that, in some degree, she is indebted to the school fund for the consistent and steady policy of the Legislature, pursued for more than twenty years, and executed by the agency of the Board of Education. In this period, normal schools have been established, which have educated a large number of teachers, and exerted a powerful and ever increasing influence in favor of good learning. Teachers' inst.i.tutes have been authorized, and the experiment successfully tested. Agents of the Board of Education have been appointed, so that it is now possible, by the aid of both these means, as is shown by accompanying returns and statements, to afford, each year, to the people of a majority of the towns an opportunity to confer with those who are specially devoted to the work of education. In all this period of time, the Legislature has never been called upon to provide money for the expenses which have thus been incurred; and, though a rigid scrutiny has been exercised over the expenditures of the educational department, measures for the promotion of the common schools have never been considered in relation to the general finances of the commonwealth. While some states have hesitated, and others have vacillated, Ma.s.sachusetts has had a consistent, uniform, progressive policy, which is due in part to the consideration already named, and in part, no doubt, to a popular opinion, traditional and historical in its origin, but sustained and strengthened by the measures and experience of the last quarter of a century, that a system of public instruction is so important an element of general prosperity as to justify all needful appropriations for its support.

It may, then, be claimed for the Ma.s.sachusetts School Fund, that the expectations of those by whom it was established have been realized; that it has given unity and efficiency to the school system; that it has secured accurate and complete returns from all the towns; that it has, consequently, promoted a good understanding between the Legislature and the people; that it has increased local taxation, but has never been a subst.i.tute for it; and that it has enabled the Legislature, at all times and in every condition of the general finances, to act with freedom in regard to those agencies which are deemed essential to the prosperity of the common schools of the state.

Having thus, in the history of the school fund, fully justified its establishment, so in its history we find sufficient reasons for its sacred preservation. While other communities, and even other states, have treated educational funds as ordinary revenue, subject only to an obligation on the part of the public to bestow an annual income on the specified object, Ma.s.sachusetts has ever acted in a fiduciary relation, and considered herself responsible for the princ.i.p.al as well as the income of the fund, not only to this generation, but to every generation that shall occupy the soil, and inherit the name and fame of this commonwealth.

It only remains for me to present the reasons which render an increase of the capital of the fund desirable, if not necessary. The annual income of the existing fund amounts to about ninety-three thousand dollars, one-half of which is distributed among the towns and cities, in proportion to the number of persons in each between the ages of five and fifteen years. The distribution for the year 1857-8 amounted to twenty cents and eight mills for each child. The following table shows the annual distribution to the towns from the year 1836; the whole number of children for each year except 1836 and 1840, when the entire population was the basis; and the amount paid on account of each child since the year 1849, when the law establis.h.i.+ng the present method of distribution was enacted:

=================================================== | | | Income | | | per Year. | Children. | Income. | pupil.

---------+--------------+---------------+---------- 1836. | 473,684 |$16,230 57[5] | -- 1837. | 160,676 | 19,002 74[6] | -- 1838. | 174,984 | 19,970 47 | -- 1839. | 180,070 | 21,358 81 | -- 1840. | 701,331 | 21,202 64[7] | -- 1841. | 179,967 | 32,109 32[8] | -- 1842. | 179,917 | 24,006 89 | -- 1843. | 173,416 | 24,094 87 | -- 1844. | 158,193 | 22,932 71 | -- 1845. | 170,823 | 28,248 35 | -- 1846. | 195,032 | 30,150 27 | -- 1847. | 197,475 | 34,511 89 | -- ===================================================

=================================================== | | | Per Pupil | | | in Cents Year. | Children. | Income. | & Mills.

---------+--------------+---------------+---------- 1848. | 210,403 |$33,874 87 | -- 1849. | 210,770 | 33,723 20 | -- 1850. | 182,003 | 37,370 51[9] | .205 1851. | 192,849 | 41,462 54 | .215 1852. | 198,050 | 44,066 12 | .222 1853. | 199,292 | 46,908 10 | .235 1854. | 202,102 | 48,504 48 | .240 1855. | 210,761 | 46,788 94 | .222 1856. | 221,902 | 44,842 75 | .202 1857. | 220,336 | 46,783 64 | .212 1858. | 222,860 | 46,496 19 | .208 ===================================================

It was contemplated by the founders of the school fund that an amount might safely be distributed among the towns equal to one-third of the sums raised by taxation, but the state is really furnis.h.i.+ng only one-thirtieth of the annual expenditure. A distribution corresponding to the original expectation is neither desirable nor possible; but a substantial addition might be made without in any degree diminis.h.i.+ng the interest of the people, or relieving them from taxation. The income of the school fund has been three times used as a means of increasing the appropriations in the towns. It is doubtful whether, without an addition to the fund, this power can be again applied; and yet there are, according to the last returns, twenty-two towns that do not raise a sum for schools equal to $2.50 for each child between the ages of five and fifteen years; and there are fifty-two towns whose appropriations are less than three dollars. When the average annual expenditure is over six dollars, the minimum ought not to be less than three.

It is to be considered that, as population increases, the annual personal distribution will diminish, and consequently that the bond now existing between the Legislature and people will be weakened. Moreover, any definite sum of money is worth less than it was twenty years ago; and it is reasonably certain that the same sum will be less valuable in 1860, and yet less valuable in 1870, than it is now. Hence, if the fund remain nominally the same, it yet suffers a practical annual decrease.

It is further to be presumed that the Legislature will find it expedient to advance in its legislation from year to year. A small number of towns, few or many, may not always approve of what is done, and it is quite important that the influence of the fund should be sufficient to enable the state to execute its policy with uniformity and precision.

As is well known, the expenses of the educational department are defrayed from the other half of the income of the fund. From this income the forty-eight scholars.h.i.+ps in the colleges, the Normal Schools, the Teachers' Inst.i.tutes, the Agents of the Board of Education, are supported, and the salaries of the Secretary and the a.s.sistant-Secretary are paid. As has been stated, the surplus carried to the capital of the fund in June last was only $1,843.68. The objects of expenditure, already named, may be abolished, but no reasonable plan of economy can effect much saving while they exist. It is also reasonably certain that the expenses of the department must be increased. The law now provides for twelve Teachers' Inst.i.tutes, annually, and there were opportunities during the present year for holding them; but, in order that one agent might be constantly employed, and a second employed for the term of six months, I limited the number of sessions to ten.

The salaries of the teachers in the Normal Schools are low, and the number of persons employed barely adequate to the work to be done. Some change, involving additional expense, is likely to be called for in the course of a few years.

In view of the eminent aid which the school fund has rendered to the cause of education, with due deference to the wisdom and opinions of its founders, and with just regard to the existing and probable necessities of the state in connection with the cause of education, I earnestly favor the increase of the school fund by the addition of a million and a half of dollars.

Nor does the proposition for the state to appropriate annually $180,000 in aid of the common schools seem unreasonable, when it is considered that the military expenses are $65,000, the reformatory and correctional about $200,000, the charitable about $45,000, and the pauper expenses nearly $250,000 more, all of which will diminish as our schools are year by year better qualified to give thorough and careful intellectual, moral, and religious culture.

This increase seems to be necessary in order that the Ma.s.sachusetts School Fund may furnish aid to the common schools during the next quarter of a century proportionate to the relative influence exerted by the same agency during the last twenty-five years. Nor will such an addition give occasion for any apprehension that the zeal of the people will be diminished in the least. Were there to be no increase of population in the state, the distribution for each pupil would never exceed forty cents, or about one-fifteenth of the amount now raised by taxation.

So convinced are the people of Ma.s.sachusetts of the importance of common schools, and so much are they accustomed to taxation for their support, that there is no occasion to hesitate, lest we should follow the example of those communities where large funds, operating upon an uneducated and inexperienced popular opinion, have injured rather than benefited the public schools. The ancient policy of the commonwealth will be continued; but, whenever the people see the government, by solemn act, manifesting its confidence in schools and learning, they will be encouraged to guard and sustain the inst.i.tutions of the fathers.

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