Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 94

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716

USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I > Part 94

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STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION-The State Board of Education in its first report to the General Assembly recommended (I) that towns be required to appropriate for school sup- port an amount at least equal to the school money received from the state; (2) that every town be required to employ a superintendent of schools; (3) that a normal school be estab- lished; (4) that towns be required to adopt ordinances dealing with truancy, and (5) that the hiring of teachers be entrusted exclusively to school committees. All but the last of these recommendations were enacted into law by the General Assembly in 1871. The board's first important accessions of power were the right to elect the Commissioner, and the designation of Board and Commissioner as a board of trustees for Rhode Island Normal School. The board was authorized to apportion the annual appropriation for evening schools in 1873, and in 1875 was entrusted with the apportionment of an annual appropriation for free public libraries. Many of the free public libraries established through the efforts of Henry Barnard and aided by the philanthropy of Asa Manton had disappeared; the appropriation made in 1875 assisted in a new development of public libraries out of which has come the modern sys- tem. The abolition of tuition, amendments that raised the annual school appropriation to $90,000, the appropriation of dog license fees for support of schools, the creation of the Board of Education in 1870, and the approval of four of five of the board's first recommenda- tions in 1871, leave no doubt of the General Assembly's disposition toward educational reform in the period. On two matters the General Assembly hesitated to act; these were the abolition

* Supra.

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EVOLUTION OF THE STATE SCHOOL SYSTEM

of school districts or radical interference with the district system, and school attendance. When the General Assembly could be persuaded to act at all with reference to attendance, the legislation was weak, if not impracticable and inoperative. Relations between the Assem- bly and the department of education as a rule were harmonious, in spite of the Assembly's neglect of some recommendations. There was, however, occasionally a note of discord. Such, for example, was the resolution adopted in 1874 appointing a committee to inquire into "the workings, cost and efficiency of the public school system of the state." It was repealed at the same session, and a committee was appointed to inquire into and report changes "which are necessary in the laws relating to public education."

TAX EXEMPTION-Exemption of property used for educational and religious purposes was investigated by a committee of the General Assembly in 1875. The first general exemp- tion statute, 1769, covered "all lands and other real estate granted or purchased for religious uses or for the uses of schools within this colony." The Digests of 1798 and 1822 exempted both real and personal property used for schools or religious purposes. Seven years later exemption was limited to buildings and land on which they stood. Tax exemption of land was limited to three acres in each instance early in 1855, but the limitation was repealed in June, 1855. The second act of 1855 exempted land and buildings actually occupied and used for educational purposes, except land leased at rent for the use and support of schools, acade- mies or colleges ; the exception was repealed in 1857. As a public hearing conducted in 1875 Bishop Hendricken of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence, Bishop Clarke of the Epis- copal Diocese of Rhode Island, President Robinson of Brown University, and other speakers favored exemption; there was strong opposition, and the committee of the General Assem- bly, which was also hostile, reported a compromise recommendation limiting exemption to buildings. The General Assembly was more generous than its committee, but limited the exemption of property held for education to free public schools and of churches to religious edifices and not exceeding one acre of land surrounding the same. A test case was taken to the Supreme Court to determine the meaning of the words "free public schools," which might be interpreted as schools charging no tuition and open to patronage by the general public, as distinct from select schools charging tuition. The school selected for the test case was a Catholic school maintained by a parish church, charging no tuition, and open to children whose parents chose to send them; it actually enrolled at the time the test was made children not of the parish and not of the Catholic Church. The Supreme Court held that "free public schools" meant schools which "are established, maintained and regulated under the statute laws of the state."; Five years later, 1883, the court held that a building used for religious purposes is exempt from taxation, although used for educational purposes as long as the educational use is merely incidental or occasional, or so long as the use, if habitual, is purely permissive and voluntary and does not interfere with the use for religious purposes, there being no alienation of the building in whole or in part for educational uses, as, for example, by lease. In the particular instance a building that had served as a church was used for religious exercises and also as a schoolhouse after the society had built another church. A building used as dormitory for teachers is not exempt as a building used for educational purposes .* The Supreme Court held in 1924 that a "free public library" is a collection of books loaned to the general public without fees for use of books,§ rejecting the suggestion that "free public library" is limited in meaning to libraries "established, maintained and regulated under the statute laws of the state." As it abolished tax exemption of private schools the act of 1875 abolished also the right of school committees to visit and inspect private schools that had been reserved as to schools claiming tax exemption under the law of 1855. The truancy statute of 1883 revived

1St. Joseph's Church vs. Assessors, 12 R. I. 19.

#St. Mary's Church vs. Tripp, 14 R. I. 307.

*In re city of Pawtucket, 24 R. I. 86.

§Gregory's Bookstore vs. Providence Public Library, 46 R. I. 283.

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a conditional right of inspection, so far as it accepted attendance at "approved" private schools in lieu of attendance on public instruction, and tax exemption was restored in 1894. Tax exemption is lost by refusal to permit visitation. The current exemption for education covers "the buildings and personal estate owned by any corporation used for a school, academy or seminary of learning, and the land upon which said buildings stand and immediately surround- ing the same to an extent not exceeding one acre, so far as the same is used exclusively for educational purposes," provided the corporation is not conducted for profit. In addition to the general exemption provided by the statutes, more liberal exemption has been granted to certain institutions by their charters or special act of the General Assembly.

THIRTY YEARS AS COMMISSIONER -- When the General Assembly, in 1875, requested the Commissioner to report whether any and what means were used in the public schools "to implant and cultivate in the minds of all children .... the principles of morality and vir- tue," as required by the statutes for thirty years, the new Commissioner, Thomas B. Stock- well, cited practice regulating reading of the Bible and the opening of school sessions with prayer or other devotional exercises, and emphasized the importance of the teacher's influ- ence and example. Commissioner Stockwell remained in office as Commissioner for thirty years, a period equal to the combined service of all his predecessors. His most significant contribution to Rhode Island education was clear definition of the issue involved in compul- sory attendance and an approach to perfection in the form of the attendance law. The first gain was the annual school census law of 1878, which in a short time furnished for the Com- missioner exactly the type of statistical information necessary for another forward movement, which bore fruit in the truancy law of 1883. With this the Commissioner was not satisfied, finding that "the chief defect in the law is that it does not provide positively for its enforce- ment. Its provisions are clearly mandatory, but there is no power lodged anywhere to make the command obligatory. As it is, the city of Providence and a number of towns have failed utterly to comply with the law in their municipal capacity. .... Either a penalty clause should be added to the law, or the state should assume charge of the matter." The Board of Education was more emphatic in its discussion of the new statute, thus: "The logic of events is carrying the state forward to full recognition of the necessity of assuming the responsibility of the school system and its maintenance. Heretofore the legislation of the state has been mainly permissive, not mandatory. It has made laws according to which communities may sustain schools, and has levied taxes to encourage communities to do so, but it has not made schools necessary, nor has it taken upon itself to provide them. And to something equivalent to this the state is now being forced by events. The argument in a nutshell is this: The people must be thoroughly educated, but they never have been by a voluntary system, and they never can be. It has only been when the state takes upon itself to see that every child received proper instruction that the work is thoroughly done. It has been taken for granted that if an offer of a free education opening the pathway of usefulness and honor to all was really made, it would be universally accepted. The assumption has not been justified. . . . And so thousands of children, after municipalities and the state have lavishly afforded the means of education, have grown up and are growing up in ignorance. The present illiteracy of Rhode Island is a conspicuous and humiliating illustration. Education should no longer be merely offered; it should be required, and if the patriotic citizens have the courage of their convictions and the good sense to be consistent, it will be required. It is not yet time, perhaps, to talk of inconsistency and cowardice, but that time rapidly approaches. The dis- cussions of the General Assembly during the last few sessions have greatly forwarded the public sentiment which demands that our system of education be made more effective by the enactment of a comprehensive and unequivocal compulsory law. The truancy law enacted a little more than a year ago, though an encouraging advance, is not a right-out, square declara- tion by the state that ignorance shall be stamped out and every child God has made capable of

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intelligent citizenship shall be qualified as such. The law makes it possible for localities-yes, for all the localities of the state-to make the declaration, but it does not make it itself. . . .. If the law remains as now, the towns which refuse to employ children who have not received the prescribed instruction will lose their help. It has been, in this short time, no uncommon thing for a family of five to leave town for another locality. . . . The town that does not execute the law is a provocation to the town that does, to repeal the law. . . .. In some locali- ties the lack of school accommodations is doubtless the reason no action has been taken under the law. While such a reason may be good for a short time, it cannot for such wealthy com- munities as Providence and Pawtucket be made to serve long as an apology for not doing what every patriotic and honorable sentiment declares should be done at once. It is to be hoped that such communities will speedily awaken to recognize how prejudicial to the cause of edu- cation is their delay. Every day and every month of such neglect is a wrong to the youth and a danger to the state." Thus the issues were clearly defined, although the ideal compulsory attendance law was not achieved until years after the State Board of Education had spoken thus plainly to the General Assembly.

ANOTHER SURVEY -- The latter, in 1896, adopted resolutions as follows :

Whereas, the Constitution of Rhode Island declares that "the diffusion of knowledge as well as of virtue among the people being essential to the preservation of their rights and liberties, it shall be the duty of the General Assembly to promote public schools, and to adopt all means which they may deem necessary and proper to secure to the people the advantages and opportunities of education;" and whereas, the oppor- tunities afforded for education should be uniform throughout the state; and whereas, owing to the inability of some of the towns to raise by taxation a sufficient amount of money to provide, with the assistance of the present state appropriations, public schools equal to those provided by the more populous and wealthy towns, the school facilities of the state are not uniformly of the highest grade; therefore resolved, that the State Board of Education be requested to prepare and report to the General Assembly measures by which the state shall still further supplement the revenues and efforts of the towns, to the end that the system of public schools throughout the state shall be uniformly of the highest attainable standard.

The board's answer was an elaborate report covering school conditions systematically and in detail, classifying towns, first, as those maintaining and, second, as those not maintaining high schools. High schools were maintained in Providence, Newport, Pawtucket, Woon- socket, Central Falls, Cumberland, East Providence, Barrington, Warren, Bristol, Johnston, Westerly, Cranston, Ashaway and Hope Valley in Hopkinton, while pupils from Lincoln attended high school in Central Falls. Most other towns maintained schoolhouses with one to four rooms, with some attempt at grading of pupils and courses of study, but pupils seldom reached the upper grammar grades. Six towns, Exeter, Foster, Little Compton, New Shore- ham, Middletown, and West Greenwich, had no graded schools. The towns maintaining high schools were mostly eastern and northern towns. In the twenty-two towns having no high school were 188 schools, 131 of which had less than twenty pupils enrolled, forty-nine less than ten pupils enrolled. The average size of schools for the whole state was thirty-six pupils. The board urged the necessity of uniting small schools, but found that the twenty-two towns comprised eighty per cent. of the total area of the state and contained only twenty per cent. of the total school population. Of seventy-two* teachers in the state having only common school education, seventy-one were employed in the twenty-two towns. The highest salary paid to any teacher in these towns was $467.50 annually, and the lowest $230.83 to a woman, and $209.05 to a man. These towns had only one-seventh of the taxable wealth of the state, and in seventeen of them the per capita wealth was less than the general average throughout the state. The faults found by the board were low grade or no grade schools, small schools, poorly prepared teachers and poorly paid teachers. The environmental difficulties were scat-

*This type of teacher has since then disappeared.

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tered population and low average per capita wealth. The board recommended consolidation and grading of schools, better examination of teachers' qualifications, trained or skilled super- vision, high school facilities, financial aid by the state, that no town should lose any part of its share in the apportionment of state school money by reason of consolidation and reduction in the number of its schools.

The General Assembly, at the January session, 1898, passed "An act to secure a more uniform high standard in the public schools of the state." It provided for the improvement of schools, by consolidation of small ungraded schools and the establishment of graded schools, by encouraging the establishment of high schools with state support, and by state certification of teachers, or the establishment of standard qualifications. The premium for consolidation of schools was also an inducement for abandonment of the district organization. The act of 1898 offered state support for high schools maintained by towns, or to towns not maintaining high schools that made provision for high school education at high schools in other towns or in academies approved by the State Board of Education. The high school law in its optional form was made mandatory in 1909, as it required towns not maintaining high schools to make provision for secondary education. The act of 1898 operated to encourage consolida- tion throughout Rhode Island, and in consequence thereof many one-teacher, one-room, ungraded schools were closed. Few one-room schoolhouses have been constructed since 1898. The extensive building of state highways, and the improvement of automobile traffic, including the development of comfortable school cars, has tended to promote consolidation and to make it feasible and convenient on the basis of transportation of pupils to central schoolhouses miles from home. Other significant advances during Commissioner Stockwell's administration were (1) the statute providing an annual appropriation to assist towns in pro- viding apparatus and reference books for schools, 1880; (2) the increase in the general state appropriation for schools to $120,000, 1884; (3) publication of the first annual program for Arbor Day, 1891, to be followed by other annual programs for Flag Day and Rhode Island Independence Day; (4) the free textbook law, 1893; (5) the inauguration of a state system of certification of teachers, 1898; (6) the beginning of state support for professional super- vision, 1903; (7) the abolition of districts, 1904, and (8) the beginnings of a number of insti- tutions planned to supplement the state-town system of public schools, by providing opportuni- ties for advanced and higher education, and education for persons deprived of normal sensory capacity. Commissioner Stockwell resigned in 1905.

SCHOOLS AT THE END OF THE CENTURY-The end of the nineteenth century was reached with a state school system completely achieved, and reaching into every town in Rhode Island. The organization began with the General Assembly, designated a state school committee, entrusting administrative functions to the State Board of Education which in turn employed the Commissioner as its executive agent. The Commissioner was more than agent for the board, however; his office was older than the board, and as chief state school officer he retained functions that were independent of the board. In towns and cities the administrative organization lay principally in a school committee elected by the people, which employed a superintendent of schools as executive agent and as supervisor, teachers, truant officers, cen- sus enumerators. In half the towns the schools were still conducted on the district plan; in these the teachers were employed by district trustees. The district plan was abandoned in 1904. Schools were supported by state, town and district taxes and appropriations ; dog tax and poll tax receipts were set aside to school support. Town or district could acquire real estate for school purposes. Towns were required to conduct schools, and received state sup- port for high school education if it were provided. No tuition was charged, and textbooks and supplies were provided at public expense. Attendance was compulsory for children of school age. Teachers must be certificated to become eligible for employment. The state- town system of schools was supplemented by Rhode Island State College, Rhode Island Nor-

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mal School, Rhode Island Institute for the Deaf, the State Home and School, and the Socka- nosset and Oaklawn schools, the last two being reformatory. Scholarships at Rhode Island School of Design were provided at public expense. The blind were educated as appointees on free state scholarships at suitable institutions. Free public libraries, scattered in all parts of Rhode Island, and distributed so that almost every town had at least one free public library within its boundaries, were assisted by a state appropriation. Evening schools, state and town supported, offered opportunities for adult education.

The movement that had produced this state-town system had opened with the first Gen- eral Assembly elected under the Constitution of 1842, which made provision for a survey of public education. Rhode Island was fortunate in obtaining the services of Henry Barnard for making the survey. A large part of the improvement was based on a program established in law-a statute drawn by Barnard, which provided for improvement immediately and pro- gressive evolution. In the half-century Rhode Island had undertaken the solution of many difficult educational problems and had achieved success based upon valuable experience. An indication of other progress to be made lay in the act passed just at the close of the century, entitled "An act to secure a more uniform high standard in the public schools of the state."

CHAPTER XXI. STATE AND NATIONAL POLITICS BEFORE THE CIVIL WAR.

ATIFICATION of the Constitution of the United States, May 29, 1790, left Rhode Island, for the time being, without a dominating political issue. The paper money controversy was definitely ended, never to be revived, because the new Constitution forbade state issues of bills of credit. The seaport and commercial towns had achieved a victory over the agrarian towns, so far as the Constitution and membership in the federal union had established the fact of responsible central government with sufficient strength to enforce the functions within its jurisdiction, which had been so strenuously opposed in Rhode Island because of the fear that Rhode Island's unique and extraordinary liberties might be jeopardized. The sectional issue, north and south, was for- gotten in the enthusiasm with which Rhode Island, once definitely in the Union, assumed the rights and duties and obligations of statehood. With the constitutional struggle ended, patriots of every variety of political opinion cast longing eyes upon the new offices, including, besides two Senators and a Representative in Congress, postmasters, a justice of the United States district court, a clerk, a district attorney and a district marshal ; a commissioner of loans; a collector of customs, a surveyor and a naval officer for each of the ports of entry, Newport and Providence, for the two revenue districts into which the state was divided; and six sur- veyors for seven ports of delivery-one for Barrington and Warren, and one each for Bristol, East Greenwich, North Kingstown, Pawtuxet and Westerly. The Newport district included all ports of delivery except Pawtuxet and Providence. In making appointments to federal offices President Washington appears to have been guided, not so much by the statements made in applications for office addressed to him, as by advice to reward the friends of the Constitution who had participated in the movement to accomplish ratification. Pursuing this policy, he strengthened the Federalist party already well-organized in Rhode Island, as it had been in other states as part of the constitutional program of the group who planned the Phila- delphia convention and carried the coup d'état through to fruition. The Federalist party was the dominating party in Rhode Island in 1790; the state party was closely affiliated with the national party of Hamilton and Adams. Yet the General Assembly elected as Senators Theo- dore Foster, who was reelected in 1790 and 1796; and Joseph Stanton, Jr., who being anti- Federalist, was replaced in 1792-1793 by William Bradford, Federalist, when the Federalist party had defined partisan lines much sharper than they had been drawn previously. Benja- min Bourn was elected as Representative in Congress by the freemen in 1790, and reelected in 1792, 1794, and 1796, in the last election as a Federalist against Republican opposition. Under the reapportionment of representation following the first census, 1790, Rhode Island was entitled to two Representatives, and Francis Malbone was elected in 1792, 1794 and 1796 as a Federalist. Federalist Representatives were chosen in 1798, but Rhode Island was rep- resented in the Seventh Congress, 1801-1803, by two Republicans. In the presidential elec- tions Rhode Island's votes were cast for Washington and Adams, 1792, as Federalists ; Adams and Ellsworth, 1796, as Federalists; and Adams and Pinckney (one vote for Jay), 1800, as Federalists. The presidential electors were appointed by the General Assembly in 1792 and 1796, and elected by the freemen in 1800 .* Rhode Island's earliest affiliations in national politics were predominatingly Federalist, or with the party of Hamilton, which favored a strong central government with ample powers, although the Rhode Island Senators

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Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. I, Part 94

Author: Carroll, Charles, author Publication date: 1932 Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co. Number of Pages: 716

Author: Carroll, Charles, author
Publication date: 1932
Publisher: New York : Lewis historical Pub. Co.
Number of Pages: 716