Part 70 (1/2)

Between 1828 and 1838 a number of conventions of friends of free public schools were held in the State, and anda was done At a convention in 1838 a committee was appointed to prepare an ”Address to the People of New Jersey” on the educational needs of the State (R 320), and speakers were sent over the State to talk to the people on the subject The caht to a conclusion in Pennsylvania, and the result of the appeal in New Jersey was such a popular islature of 1838 instituted a partial state school system The pauper-school laere repealed, and the best features of the short-lived Law of 1829 were reenacted In 1844 a new state constitution limited the income of the permanent state school fund exclusively to the support of public schools

With the pauper-school idea elih with it The wisdom of its elimination soon beca Northern people The deer in Maryland, Virginia, and Georgia, and at places for a time in other Southern States, but finally disappeared in the South as well in the educational reorganizations which took place following the close of the Civil War

III THE BATTLE TO MAKE THE SCHOOLS ENTIRELY FREE

THE SCHOOLS NOT YET FREE The rate-bill, as we have previously stated, was an old institution, also brought over froe levied upon the parent to supple the school term, and was assessed in proportion to the number of children sent by each parent to the school In some States, as for example Massachusetts and Connecticut, its use went back to colonial times; in others it was added as the cost for education increased, and it was seen that the income from permanent funds and authorized taxation was not sufficient to th of tiainst the parents sending children to school, _pro rata_, and collected as ordinary tax-bills (R 321) The charge was small, but it was sufficient to keepcities, with their new social problems, could not and would not tolerate the rate-bill systeislatures which enabled theanize a city school system, separate from city-council control, and under a local ”board of education” One of the provisions of these special laws nearly alas the right to levy a city tax for schools sufficient to provide free education for the children of the city

[Illustration: FIG 202 THE NEW YORK REFERENDUM OF 1850 Total vote: For free schools, 17 counties and 209,346 voters; against free schools, 42 counties and 184,308 voters]

THE FIGHT AGAINST THE RATE-BILL IN NEW YORK The attempt to abolish the rate-bill and orously contested in New York State, and the contest there is most easily described Froe annual sum of 410,68566, or about one half of the sum paid all the teachers of the State for salary While the wealthy districts were securing special legislation and taxing themselves to provide free schools for their children, the poorer and less populous districts were left to struggle to maintain their schools the four months each year necessary to secure state aid Finally, after islature to assueneral state taxation, and thus islature, in 1849, referred the matter back to the people to be voted on at the elections that autuislature was to be thus advised by the people as to what action it should take The result was a state-wide caainst partially free, rate-bill schools

The result of the 1849 election was a vote of 249,872 in favor of”the property of the State educate the children of the State,” and 91,952 against it This only seemed to stir the opponents of free schools to renewed action, and they induced the next legislature to resubmit the question for another vote, in the autumn of 1850

The result of the referendue 685 The opponents of tax-supported schools nowtheir vote in 1849, while the majority for free schools wasshown on this map was the clear and unmistakable voice of the cities They would not tolerate the rate- bill, and, despite their larger property interests, they favored tax- supported free schools The rural districts, on the other hand, opposed the idea

THE RATE-BILL IN OTHER STATES These two referenda virtually settled the question in New York, though for a time a compromise was adopted The state appropriation for schools was very anization of ”union districts” to provide free schools by local taxation where people desired them was authorized

Many of these ”union free districts” now arose in the ressive communities of the State, and finally, in 1867, after rural and other forely subsided, and after almost all the older States had abandoned the plan, the New York legislature finally abolished the rate-bill and made the schools of New York entirely free

The dates for the abolition of the rate-bill in the other older Northern States were:

1834 Pennsylvania 1867 New York

1852 Indiana1868 Connecticut

1853 Ohio 1868 Rhode Island

1855 Illinois 1869 Michigan

1864 Verht of 1849 and 1850 was the pivotal fight; in the other States it was abandoned by legislative act, and without a serious contest

In the Southern States free education ca the close of the Civil War

IV THE BATTLE TO ESTABLISH SCHOOL SUPERVISION

BEGINNINGS OF STATE CONTROL The great battle for state schools was not only for taxation to stimulate their development where none existed, but was also indirectly a battle for some forrown up The establishment of permanent state school funds by the older States, to suppleranted, also tended toward the establishment of some form of state supervision and control of the local school systems The first step was the establish of conditions necessary to secure this state aid

State oversight and control, however, does not exercise itself, and it soon became evident that the States must elect or appoint some officer to represent the State and enforce the observance of its demands It would be pri to schools were carried out, that statistics as to existing conditions were collected and printed, and that coislature as to the needs of the State We find now the creation of a series of school officers to represent the State, the enactrate, subordinate, and reduce to some semblance of a state school systerown up

THE FIRST STATE SCHOOL OFFICERS The first American State to create a state officer to exercise supervision over its schools was New York, in 1812 In enacting the ne [8] providing for state aid for schools the first State Superintendent of Common Schools in the United States was created So far as is known this was a distinctively American creation, uninfluenced by the practice in any other land It was to be the duty of this officer to look after the establishhout the State [9] Maryland created the office in 1826, but two years later abolished it and did not re-create it until 1864 Illinois directed its Secretary of State to act, _ex officio_, as Superintendent of Schools in 1825, as did also Vermont in 1827, Louisiana in 1833, Pennsylvania in 1834, and Tennessee in 1835 Illinois did not create a real State Superintendent of Schools, though, until 1854, Vermont until 1845, Louisiana until 1847, Pennsylvania until 1857, or Tennessee until 1867 The first States to create separate school officials who have been continued to the present tian and Kentucky, both in 1837

Often quite a legislative struggle took place to secure the establishment of the office, and later on to prevent its abolition

[Illustration: FIG 203 STATUS OF SCHOOL SUPERVISION IN THE UNITED STATES BY 1861 For a list of the 28 City Superintendencies established up to 1870, see Cubberley's _Public School Administration_, p 58 For the history of the state educational office in each State see Cubberley and Elliott, _State and County School Administration, Source Book_, pp 283-87]

By 1850 there were _ex-officio_ state school officers in nine and regular school officers in seven of the then thirty-one States, and by 1861 there were _ex-officio_ officers in nine and regular officers in nineteen of the then thirty-four States, as well as one of each in two of the organized Territories The above ht by 1861--forty-nine years from the time the first American state school officer was created The map also shows the ten of the thirty-four States which had, by 1861, also created the office of County Superintendent of Schools, as well as the twenty-five cities which had, by 1861, created the office of City Superintendent of Schools Only three ton, and Kansas City--were added before 1870, ht, but since that date the nu like fourteen hundred to-day