USA > Indiana > A history of education in Indiana > Part 14
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157
THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1852.
Even this right of the locality to provide, by tax, extra funds for building (including furnishing, apparatus, and running expenses, except tuition), was also questioned in certain counties. In Fort Wayne, in June, 1853, such pro- posed tax was voted down by 196 against 127, and a test case was brought in the Warren Circuit Court, and taken, by appeal, to the Supreme Court, as " Adamson vs. The Auditor and Treasurer of Warren County."
The suit was brought to recover the tax paid by plaintiff, as assessed by the trustees of Mound Township, Warren County (1853), for the building of school-houses. Moreover, the tax was assessed by the trustees after a vote of the town- ship in its favor. It was held upon trial before Judge Per- kins that, though the provision in the law authorizing town- ship trustees to assess taxes for paying teachers is unconsti- tutional, because the power of voting taxes for that purpose is vested by the Constitution "in the Legislature alone," the means for building school-houses, etc., are left "within the power of township trustees, and no more uniformity can be required of them than there can be as to those for building court-houses and jails in the different counties." The vote of the citizens was held to be unconstitutional, and hence void. It was needless; but "the tax was legally levied by the trustees." The system, in 1855, required that tuition in all public schools must be furnished by the State; the houses and appliances by the locality.
4. City and Town School Corporations.
It has already been repeatedly pointed out, and needs here no extended treatment, that for almost forty years after the assumption of statehood by Indiana no attempt was made to even legalize free public schools in cities and towns. All schools were township institutions, having township patronage, and depending upon township support. The educational needs of cities were supposed to be fully met by the county or specially incorporated private or denomina- tional seminaries and academies. But, whatever their con-
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'01.
stitution, none of them were free. Nevertheless, it should be said that for a certain grade of learning and for limited classes of the population, some of these towns have never been supplied with better instruction, more effective disci- pline, or more wholesome example for life and motive than under the influence of their local seminaries.
There were among them real schools, forward in the best educational thought of the day, free as were the schools any- where in all this country, manned by scholarship, and fol- lowed by devotion. Any town was fortunate to have had for a teacher a Morrison, a Ferris, a Hoshour, a Haughton, a Post, a Rufus Patch, an Ebenezer Tucker, or a Zebulon Stur- gus. Their schools were colleges. But they were not public schools, most of them, even in the same sense that the township schools were such. They might be admirable as substitutes, but they were no part of the system as a civil organization.
Touching educational matters, the cities had been sys- tematically ignored in all legislation for thirty-six years. Any such community, financially or otherwise unable to found for itself and maintain a high-grade, well-taught semi- nary, whose patronage would be sought by the scholarly and capable, must be content with or suffer under the deficien- cies and discrepancies of the pioneer, private, elementary subscription school of mixed grades and changing teachers. From adventurers, indeed, the town more often suffered than the country. Altogether, whether as compared with the district on the one hand, or the city on the other, the town fared badly.
In the convention, however, both town and city had their friends; and, while their educational rights are not men- tioned in the Constitution, the question was repeatedly con- sidered in their debates, and the effect was felt in the draft- ing of the new law. They were made special objects of legislation.
Section 32 * reads as follows:
* Revised Statutes, 1852, p. 444.
159
THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1852.
"Incorporated cities and towns shall constitute school corporations, independent of the townships in which they may be situated, and shall be entitled to the proportional amount of school funds to which the number of children between the ages prescribed by law will entitle them; and shall, by trustees elected by the people or by officers ap- pointed by the corporation, perform all the duties required of township trustees, prepare and file with the county au- ditor all the reports required of and be subject to all the liabilities of such trustees; shall have power by vote of the qualified voters of such corporation, or by an ordinance, to levy taxes for the support of their schools, after the public funds shall have been exhausted, for the building, repairing, and hiring of school-houses; for the furnishing thereof; for the purchase or leasing ground therefor; for the estab- lishment or increase of school libraries, and for all other incidental expenses. They shall have power to establish graded schools, and generally to do and perform all other acts which, by this act, are authorized to be done and per- formed by township trustees; .. . " This section was not touched by the previous Supreme Court decision.
Almost immediately schools were opened under the pro- visions of the law. Taxes were levied, houses built, and some attempts made at organization and grading. Both in the system and the administration, cities now had greatly the advantage of townships and districts. To further ex- tend the system and increase its efficiency, the conditions were somewhat modified, and the privileges, also, in the re- vision of 1855. Emboldened by being let alone, they asserted new and larger rights and secured their confirmation.
The legislation was in the form of a separate statute, not an amendment, and was entitled "An Act to authorize the establishment of free public schools in the incorporated cities and towns of the State of Indiana." Because of its provisions and the importance it subsequently assumed, the act is inserted in full.
SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
State of Indiana that the several incorporated cities and towns of this State be and they are hereby authorized and empowered to establish and support public schools within their respective corporate limits, and, by an ordinance of such corporation, to levy and collect such taxes as may be necessary from time to time for the support thereof.
SEC. 2. It shall be lawful for any such city or town to recognize any school, seminary, or other institution of learn- ing which has been or may be erected by private enterprise, as a part of their system, and to make such appropriation of funds to such school, seminary, or institution of learn- ing, and upon such terms and conditions as may be deemed proper.
SEC. 3. Nothing contained in this act shall be construed to authorize any city or town, by any system adopted under this act, to supersede the common schools established under the authority of this State, and supported by the public funds.
SEC. 4. When any tax is required to be levied, as pro- vided in this act, the county auditor, upon being required so to do by the proper authorities of any city or town, shall enter the said tax upon his duplicate, and the treasurer shall proceed to collect the same upon the list of property subject to taxation for State and county purposes, and shall pay over the same when collected to the treasurer of such city or town or other officer properly authorized to receive the same.
SEC. 5. Inasmuch as existing laws are not sufficient to confer the power herein given, and it is desirable that such powers should exist immediately, it is declared that an emergency exists for the immediate taking effect of this act. Wherefore it shall take effect from its passage.
This gave cities greatly extended powers, much to the disadvantage of the township system and in the face of half a dozen adverse decisions of the Supreme Court upon essen- tially the same provisions. What had been denied to the township was not only conceded but confirmed to the city- the right to local-tuition taxes.
161
THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1852.
Notwithstanding judicial "opinions," however, the law became operative, and schools were established under this as they had been for a year under the former legislation. The transformation of private seminaries into public graded schools ; the rise of new systems providing free education where before had been none, or worse; the new public in- terest, this ready and eager acceptance of almost unhoped- for, certainly unexpected, opportunity of culture-vitalize a most interesting period in Indiana's educational history.
Within three years of the passage of the new school law, in most instances even before its revision, school systems had made a beginning in Indianapolis, Evansville, Terre Haute, Fort Wayne, New Albany, Valparaiso, Vevay (all in 1853); in Richmond, Logansport, and Michigan City in 1854; in Plymouth, Muncie, and elsewhere the year follow- ing. Many and commodious houses were erected during the same years in these cities, and Lafayette, Madison, Shel- byville, Rising Sun, Delphi, Mishawaka, Edinburg, and Elk- hart; and a year later in Connersville, Franklin, La Port, Decatur, Auburn, etc. The State generally was joyous in its new-found life. The actual achievements in buildings and schools in a dozen such centers were doing more to edu- cate the public up to an unreserved acceptance of the "free- school idea " than a generation of legislation. Of one hun- dred corporate towns and cities reported to the department in 1856, about one half had already instituted systems and nearly as many owned their own buildings. But the objec- tion to local taxes in townships, so generously sustained by the Supreme Court in 1854, could not long go unquestioned in cities also.
Following the action of the Legislature in 1855, the city of Lafayette took steps to organize a public system; taxes had been placed and the collection ordered. William M. Jenners instituted suit in the Tippecanoe Circuit Court asking that the city be enjoined from collecting the tax so assessed against him. The injunction was granted and an appeal taken by the city of Lafayette to the Supreme Court. The
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
case was tried before Judge Perkins, who confirmed the judgment of the lower court, and declared the injunction perpetual.
The only point at issue upon appeal was the constitu- tionality of section 1 of the act of 1855. The decree held that, "if the Legislature can not under the Constitution con- fer upon cities and towns (and townships) the power to levy taxes to continue the free public schools of the State, how can it confer upon them power to levy taxes to establish and support free public schools ? And what was the objec- tion assigned against the first ? It was not that it was con- ferring upon cities and towns powers that they were not adapted to exercise, but that it was attempting to confer upon them power touching a subject as to which the Consti- tution required all the power to be exercised by the Legis- lature alone-viz., the subject of furnishing tuition in pub- lic schools to children of the State."
Cities along with townships might provide funds by taxa- tion for building purposes, and to this end might not re- ceive aid from the State. But in the interest of a uniform State system for tuition they must be content with what the State chose to distribute from invested funds and general taxes. In this restriction put upon tuition revenues, city and township now suffered alike, though not equally, but everywhere seriously.
Here, then, were three judgments, in as many years and all within five years of the inauguration of the system touch- ing two of the wisest provisions of the new law, and ema- nating from the Supreme Court, two of which seem to pres- ent thought to have been hindering, and only hindering, to the cause of public schooling. The opinion of Judge Per- kins now first applied the opinions of Judges Hovey and Stuart to local tax in cities. The result was that most city schools were closed as public schools, the houses rented to private parties, and superintendents and teachers dismissed, not a few of the best of both classes leaving the State.
195
THE SCHOOL LAW OF 1852.
5. Miscellaneous Provisions.
Among the further provisions made by this first law and here to be mentioned, though only to make the view less partial, was that concerning school libraries. Sections 138 to 146, inclusive, required that there should be assessed and collected for two years a property tax of one fourth of a mill and a poll tax of twenty-five cents, "to be applied ex- clusively to the purchase of township school libraries, under the direction of the State Board of Education." Like pro- visions had already been made in New York (1839), in Michigan (1837), Massachusetts (1837), Connecticut (1839), and Rhode Island and Iowa Territory (1840)-States with whose educational history the framers of our law were most of them familiar.
There was created also, as required by the Constitution, the office of Superintendent of Public Instruction, who should be elected as other State officers, and hold his office for two years. His salary was fixed at $1,300 per annum, with an allowance, not to exceed five hundred dollars, "for traveling, postage, stationary, and other expenses." He was made ex-officio president of the State Board of Education, and required to superintend the purchase and distribution of the township libraries. Besides, the duty of examining and licensing all teachers throughout the State devolved upon him directly or through deputies, of whom he might appoint one in each county.
The Board of Education, though not mentioned in the Constitution, was established " for the purpose of more effect- ually promoting the interests of education," and made to consist of the Governor, Treasurer, Secretary, and Auditor of State, and the Superintendent of Public Instruction. Its chief function for many years seems to have been the ex- amination, adoption, and "introduction of uniform school books."
Altogether the act of 1852 was a considerable advance upon the best previous legislation. It made a school system
1
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UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
possible; and, but for the unfavorable judicial decisions, would have secured a reasonable length of term, a fair uni- formity, and general co-operation. For the first time in In- diana the system reflected the sentiment that it is the duty of the State to educate the children of the State. It meant the re-enforcement of the weaker sections through aid from the stronger and wealthier. It meant one system for all the townships and cities, not a thousand. Wisely administered, the policy contemplated in the law guaranteed more school- ing through the longer terms made possible, better educa- tion through the choice of better teachers and wise super- vision, and, withal, a more economical management.
Its failure came not from itself, but from unfortunate in- terpretations and a strong minority opposition in the gen- eral public. Nevertheless, in the fifteen years from 1852 the growth of public sentiment touching free universal edu- cation was wholesome and rapid. Its former friends were confirmed and new ones won, and all rallied as never be- fore. Legislation itself became educative and a wiser policy matured.
CHAPTER XIII.
THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE COMMON SCHOOL FUND.
A CLOSE organization and a more or less centralized ad- ministration of school affairs are distinguishing marks of the modern control in public education, as compared with the management two generations ago. And among all the phases of centralization there is none more in harmony with the general movement, or better representative of the policy, and none more marked or salutary in its influence, than the creation, fostering, and conservation of permanent funds.
With few and unimportant exceptions, the endowment of public institutions for elementary training by setting
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE COMMON SCHOOL FUND. 165
aside a body of invested funds, or guaranteeing an undimin- ishable annual revenue other than that by taxation, is, in the United States, a policy whose beginning lies within the memory of men yet living. With its roots deep in the soil of the "Old Northwest," and warmed by the fires of the Revolutionary spirit, its visible growth and large fruitage belong yet to the heart of the present century. It adds dignity and permanence to all elementary educa- tion.
Of the forty-four States in the Union, forty-one have such funds, amounting in the aggregate to more than $130,- 000,000. For purposes of reference and comparison, a table is inserted giving the permanent funds of the several States from the most recent authorities at hand. To this item is added, as fixing its significance, estimates or official statistics concerning the property valuation, the total population, and the school census in the same States:
Permanent funds.
Taxables.
Population, 1890.
School census.
Alabama.
$2,700,000
$197,000,000
1,513,017
522,891
Arkansas
460,000
175,000,000
1,128,179
405,587
California
3,000,000
1,071,000,000
1,208,180
280,882
Colorado.
700,000
189,000,000
412,198
95,137
Connecticut.
2,025,000
360,000,000
746,258
159,241
Delaware
74,000,000
168,493
39,131
Florida
500,000
77,000,000
391,422
113,647
Georgia.
377,000,000
1,837,353
560,281
Idaho
26,000,000
84,385
25,741
Illinois
10,700,000
730,000,000
3,826,351
1,163,440
Indiana
9,800,000
790,000,000
2,192,404
770,723
Iowa
4,300,000
478,000,000
1,911,896
660,495
Kansas
6,100,000
291,000,000
1,427,496
509,514
Kentucky Louisiana.
1,200,000
235,000,000
1,118,587
370,226
Maine
831,000
310,000,000
661,086
211,547
Maryland.
483,000,000
1,042,390
Massachusetts
5,200,000
2,200,000,000
2,238,943
370,116
Michigan
4,600,000
950,000,000
2,093,889
654,502
Minnesota
8,500,000
590,000,000
1,301,826
452,345
Mississippi.
875,000
160,000.000
1,289,600
464,474
Missouri.
10,700,000
790,000,000
2,679,184
858,754
Montana
107,000,000
132,159
27,821
Nebraska
5,700,000
185,000,000
1,058,910
332,243
Nevada
1,100,000
25,000,000
45,761
10,022
1,800,000
513,000,000
1,858,635
676,870
12
166
UNDER THE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
Permanent funds.
Taxables.
Population, 1890.
School census.
New Hampshire ...
253,000,000
376,530
New Jersey .
3,500,000
690,000,000
1,444,933
410,512
New York ..
8,100,000
3,800,000,000
5,997,853
1,844,596
North Carolina.
100,000
215,000,000
1,617,947
586,668
North Dakota.
80,000,000
182,719
43,153
Ohio
4,300,000
1,800,000,000
3,672,316
1,123,895
Oregon
1,000,000
170,000,000
313,767
99,543
Rhode Island .
275,000
325,000,000
345,506
64,960
South Carolina
133,000,000
1,151,149
South Dakota
132,000,000
328,808
86,177
Tennessee. .
2,500,000
350,000,000
1,767,518
685,310
Texas.
19,500,000
700,000,000
2,235,523
665,672
Vermont.
880,000
162,000,000
332,422
78,997
Virginia
1,200,000
365,000,000
1,655,980
652,045
Washington.
125,000,000
349,390
87,813
West Virginia.
620,000
170,000,000
762,794
266,326
Wisconsin
2,970,000
593,000,000
1,606,880
592,756
Wyoming
35,000,000
60,705
....
Totals
$130,000,000
$24,000,000,000
62,000,000
18,000,000
Pennsylvania
2,600,000,000
5,258,014
As will appear elsewhere, the annual cost of the schools in the United States is nearly one fourth more than the total productive funds of the country. Indeed, the yearly income from all these permanent investments combined would be less than the average of the six largest State disbursements for pub- lic schools in the same period. The proceeds from permanent funds being but about five and a half per cent of the total school expenditure, it leaves nearly 95 per cent to be gathered from incidental sources and annual taxes-State and local.
These estimates apply to Indiana as well as to the States as a whole. About one tenth of our State's revenue is de- rived from the permanent fund, a million and a half from State taxes, and the remainder, with inconsiderable additions, from other sources, chiefly from local levies. Nevertheless, the existence and the general participation in the benefits of a common-school fund have, in every State, and particularly in Indiana, encouraged local interest, directed public senti- ment, fixed standards of efficiency, and served as a guarantec of the State's faith in her subjects.
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE COMMON SCHOOL FUND. 167
The experience of Indiana upon this question is a typical one, and her success in administering one of the largest State permanent funds for school purposes suggests that a study of its constitution and growth may reveal lessons not to the teaching class alone of Indiana, but to all who are in- terested in understanding the forces that have contributed to the perfection of the State public school.
The total productive funds of the forty-four States aggre- gate about $130,000,000, with a tax-list of not less than $25,000,000,000. Estimating the population of the United States at 62,000,000, the valuation per capita is about $400; in Indiana it is about $375. The average funds per capita are $2 in the country at large; in Indiana, $4.50. Esti- mating the school census of the United States at 18,000,000, the average productive fund per capita is something more than $7; the corresponding average for Indiana is $12.70. But one State-Texas-shows a higher average-$29.10.
Three States only, it will be observed, have a larger pro- ductive school fund than Indiana. These, in order, are Texas, Illinois, and Missouri.
The State Common School Fund of Indiana is composite, and has a history of more than half a century. Its moneys have been derived from various sources and under different statutory enactments. For a part it is indebted to the Gen- eral Government. Others came from the wise planning of our fathers; now through the Constitution, now through legislation.
It is the purpose here to take up these several funds, and the attempts, sometimes unsuccessful, to augment them, chiefly in chronological order and as far as the records are complete, and trace their development and legislative his- tory.
These endowments appear as : (1) The Congressional Township Fund, (2) the Saline Fund, (3) the County Seminary Fund, (4) the Delinquent Tax Fund, (5) the Bank Tax Fund, (6) the Sinking Fund, (7) the Surplus Revenue Fund, (8) the Swamp Land Fund, (9) the Con-
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UNDER TIIE NEW CONSTITUTION, 1851-'91.
tingent Funds, and (10) the Michigan Road Fund. Not all of these sources have proved actually productive; indeed, it is not known that those mentioned as 4, 8, and 10 have ever added anything to the general fund, but, inasmuch as they are a part of the State's legislative provision, and mark phases of the movement toward a permanent endowment of elementary education, they are not only interesting, but a necessary part of the history of the general fund, and so find their place in the study.
1. Congressional Township Fund.
It has already been noted how the United States Govern- ment, impressed with the supreme political and social sig- nificance of "religion, morality, and knowledge," pledged itself, in the Ordinance of 1787, to the encouragement of " schools and the means of education "; and that subsequent donations of lands to the States included the sixteenth sec- tion in each township, or one thirty-sixth of the entire domain, for the use of schools, fulfilling the Federal pledge, as it continued the policy initiated in the grants to Ohio, the first State of the Northwest.
The origin of the policy is both historically and profes- sionally interesting and suggestive.
Early in the spring of 1783, close upon the signing of the preliminary treaties that closed the Revolutionary contest, and while a loyal but unpaid army was contemplating an empty treasury, certain officers of the New England military, including Colonel Timothy Pickering and Rufus Putnam, petitioned Congress for land, and leave to plant a colony to the west of Pennsylvania, for army veterans and their fami- lies. It was proposed that, having set aside a considerable territory to these old soldiers in payment of military ser- vices, "all the surplus lands should be the common property of the State, and be disposed for the common good, as for laying out roads, building bridges, erecting public build- ings, establishing schools and academies, defraying the expenses of the Government, and other public uses." Put-
ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE COMMON SCHOOL FUND. 169
nam suggested that, with the land uniformly surveyed, reser- vations might be made "for schools and the ministry." Although the petition was discussed by the committee to whom it was referred, it does not appear to have received favorable consideration.
Two months later, Colonel Bland, one of the delegates from Virginia, urging the General Government's acceptance of Virginia's offer to cede her Western lands, introduced into Congress a motion looking to an appropriation of land in the Northwest to soldiers, and the reservation by Congress of one tenth of the territory, the income from which should be "appropriated to the payment of the civil list of the United States, erecting frontier forts, founding seminaries of learning, and the surplus, if any, to be appropriated to the building and equipping of a navy."
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