USA > Rhode Island > Rhode Island : three centuries of democracy, Vol. II > Part 59
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100
*Wixon vs. Newport, 13 R. I. 454.
954
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
The Rhode Island state system of schools consists of (I) free public elementary and high schools, established and maintained by towns and cities under mandatory statutes ; (2) Rhode Island College of Education, the function of which is the training of teachers for the public schools ; (3) Rhode Island State College, open without tuition to youth who are properly pre- pared for pursuing the instruction offered; (4) a number of institutions established and maintained for persons who may not with profit participate in public education in the ordi- nary type of school, including Rhode Island School for the Deaf, Exeter School, Sockanos- sett School, Oaklawn School, and State Home and School. The state also provides education through other agencies, including education for the blind, free state scholarships at Rhode Island School of Design, Brown University and Rhode Island College of Pharmacy, rehabili- tation service, and public libraries. For older youth and adults the public day school system is supplemented by evening schools, and by vocational schools and classes of various types. The administration of the school system centres in the State Board of Education, which appoints as its secretary and executive agent a Commissioner of Education. Assisting the Commission directly are Directors of Vocational Education, of Adult Education, and of Surveys and Accounts. Other agents travelling from state headquarters are Supervisors of Agricultural Education, of Trade and Industrial Education, and of Home Economics Education, attached to the vocational division; an inspector of high schools, a library visitor, and a supervisor of home classes in Americanization. The town and city organization for administration is essen- tially similar throughout the state, centering in a school committee elected by the people. The school committee appoints a superintendent of schools, teachers, supervisors, truant officers, census enumerators, medical inspectors, janitors, and other agents in number and variety of service depending upon the size of the system. Under the statutes the school organization is practically independent of the general municipal government in town and city, and is pro- tected from interference in the exercise of its functions by town meeting, town council or city council.t
The following summary outlines the general administration of Rhode Island public schools in 1930:
A. School Property-Land and buildings may be provided by the town or city; the school committee may rent suitable quarters if the town fails to provide school buildings. The school committee has exclusive right to locate sites for schoolhouses, subject to an appeal to the Commissioner. Dube vs. Peck, 22 R. I. 443; Dube vs. Dixon, 27 R. I. 115; Appeal of Cottrell, 10 R. I. 615. The school committee may take land privately owned for school pur- poses by condemnation. The town may appoint a special building committee to construct a school building. Closing a school does not operate as an abandonment; the school committee retains a right to reopen the school unless it votes to "abandon." East Greenwich vs. Gim- mons, 34 R. I. 256. The school committee has the exclusive right to spend money appro- priated for equipping and furnishing school buildings, even in the instance of a new building, the construction of which has been entrusted to a special committee. The school committee selects and prescribes textbooks, and must purchase at public expense and loan to pupils all supplies and textbooks needed for use in schools. Gormley vs. School Committee. Text- books may be changed only once in three years without permission first obtained from the State Board of Education.
B. School Finance-Town school money is derived from general taxation of property ; the tax and expenditures annually must equal the amount of a tax of three mills. The school committee is entitled also for use for school purposes to poll taxes, dog taxes, tuition paid by non-residents, proceeds of sales of school property other than land and buildings, and fines collected under the truancy law. State support is provided from general taxation, and appor- tioned to towns to assist in paying teachers' salaries, supporting high schools, maintaining
+Times Publishing Company vs. White, 23 R. I. 334; Hardy vs. Lee, 36 R. I. 302; Murphy vs. Duffy, 46 R. I. 210.
955
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM
evening schools, providing supervision, purchasing apparatus, providing apparatus for manual training or instruction in vocational classes, paying for medical inspection, and consolidating schools. The Commissioner and State Board of Education may provide further assistance from the income of the permanent school fund in the event of emergencies. The town treas- urer is legal custodian of school money, is required to keep separate accounts of receipts and expenditures, and to use the books prescribed by the Commissioner. The town treasurer may pay money from the school account only on orders drawn by the school committee. Randall vs. Wetherell, 2 R. I. 120. For this reason special appropriations of school money do not bind the school committee. Times Publishing Company vs. White, 23 R. I. 334. The city council may not establish a salary schedule for teachers that binds the school committee. Hardy vs. Lee, 36 R. I. 302. The school committee may expend for any purpose within its jurisdiction an amount exceeding that appropriated by the town meeting. Expenditure of school money is limited to school purposes, but the school committee has a wide discretion. A town is required by mandatory statute to establish and maintain schools, and the school com- mittee is its agent for the purpose. A school committee is not limited to the amount appro- priated by the town or city ; it may incur indebtedness, charging the public credit. Gormley vs. School Committee; Hardy vs. Lee, 36 R. I. 302. The school committee is required to prepare a budget of proposed expenditures before the meeting for appropriations, and must send copies to the appropriating body and to the Commissioner. The school committee is required to report annually to the Commissioner and to the town on forms prescribed and furnished by the Commissioner.
C. School Teachers-No person is eligible for appointment as a teacher, supervisor or superintendent in the public schools unless he holds a certificate of qualifications issued by or under the authority of the State Board of Education. The board may annul a certificate for cause. Teachers may be recommended for employment by the superintendent of schools, but the selection of teachers is a function of the school committee. Tenure may not be, in the instance of regular employment, for less than a school year, or the balance of a school year ; a contract for a shorter period is construed as an evasion of the statutory process for dismis- sal. The school committee may dismiss a teacher on charges after a trial. The teacher is entitled to presentation of charges, and an opportunity to present witnesses in his defence. Crandall vs. School Committee; Brown vs. School Committee. Members of school commit- tees are ineligible for appointment as superintendent or teacher in the town of residence. The teacher's salary may not be less than $650 per year for regular employment. The duties of the teacher are (I) To hold a certificate of qualification; (2) to observe and enforce rules and regulations prescribed by the school committee; (3) to teach the course of study; (4) to keep a school register and report to the Commissioner when requested ; (5) to keep records of vaccination, and exclude from school children who are not vaccinated or excused from vaccination; (6) to implant and cultivate in the minds of the pupils sound principles of morality; (7) to prepare programs for observance of school holidays; (8) if in charge of a building, to conduct fire drills; (9) to conduct physical education twenty minutes each day ; (10) to teach fire prevention one hour each month; (II) to teach the principles of the American form of government. The teacher is eligible for a pension .after thirty-five years of service; and is no longer exempt from jury duty since 1929.
D. Administration and Supervision-The school committee is the exclusive agency for local administration; the superintendent of schools is the executive agent of the commit- tee. The school committee may prescribe rules and regulations for teachers and pupils, and for the use of buildings and other school property. The rules are subject to approval by the Commissioner. The school committee prescribes the course of study, subject to approval by the Commissioner, and in the instance of the town high school subject to approval of the State Board of Education also. The course of study must include (1) physiology and
956
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
hygiene; (2) physical education; (3) fire prevention, and (4) the principles of the American form of government. The minimum school year is 180 actual days, and for high schools thirty-eight weeks. The school committee is required to employ a superintendent of schools, whose statutory duties are (I) to undertake the duties prescribed for him by the school com- mittee; (2) to conduct sight and hearing tests annually; (3) to be the chief administrative agent of the school committee; (4) to assist the committee in keeping records and making reports ; (5) to recommend teachers for appointment ; (6) to recommend textbooks, supplies, and equipment ; (7) to recommend repairs and improvements; (8) to report to the committee at least annually ; (9) to report the opening of Americanization classes; (10) to keep a card record of the census and of attendance; (II) to visit schools at least annually and report to the school committee on the condition of buildings and equipment, the quality of instruction, and the needs of the schools. The school committee must appoint truant officers to enforce attendance, and enumerators to take the annual census. It may provide medical inspection, including dental inspection, and may establish public dental clinics. Besides the financial report made annually, the school committee or its agents is required to report, on the request of the Commissioner, other information concerning the schools. Complying with the require- ments of the school statutes, the school committee exercises a liberal discretion in extending the town's educational program, and in the appointment of agents and assistants is not limited to customary designations, but may appoint reasonably and specify the service.
E. Pupils-No person may be excluded from any public school because of race or color or for being more than fifteen years of age, or for any reason except by general rule applicable to similar cases. The right to exclude or suspend temporarily because of hazard of contagious or infectious diseases is recognized as a reasonable health quarantine. The right to school includes in Rhode Island elementary and secondary education at the expense of the town of residence, with books and supplies. A child may not be excluded for backwardness or failure to achieve promotion. The power to exclude finally does not exist ; a school committee may suspend a pupil for incorrigibly bad conduct, or persistent violation of school regulations. The right of a teacher, principal or superintendent to suspend is limited to the current session as a device for protecting a school from disturbance. Attendance is compulsory for children aged seven to sixteen years, except children over fifteen who are lawfully and regularly employed or engaged in business; attendance must be at public day schools, or on private instruction approved by the school committee. The machinery for enforcing attendance includes (I) the school census; (2) the teacher's record of attendance; (3) the correlation of census and attendance on the cards kept by the superintendent; (4) the services of truant officers and factory inspectors. A child is entitled to attendance in his own town, and reasonably in the school of his grade nearest his home, and is bound to attend regularly every day and hour that school is in session. Services may not be required of a pupil, and hazing is forbidden. The law protects the child in school from solicitation (I) for contributions to collections; (2) for purchases ; (3) for subscriptions to magazines and periodicals, and (4) from charges for tutoring by his teachers.
F. The school law carries many penalties for violation or failure to observe. To assist in enforcement, appeals may be taken without cost from action or failure to act on the part of a school committee to the Commissioner of Education. The Commissioner's decision may be enforced by mandamus. Randall vs. Wetherell, 2 R. I. 120. The State Board of Educa- tion also has a function with reference to enforcing school law, may issue orders to assure compliance, and may penalize towns for violations of law by school officers or other persons related to the school organization, by withholding state money apportioned to the town until orders are complied with satisfactorily.
Public education is Rhode Island's greatest and most important enterprise, measured by the number of persons affected, by the widespread distribution of school property, by the value
957
PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM
of public school property, and by the amount of money expended annually. More than one- fifth of the population is enrolled in schools for education .* Schools are so well distributed as to be convenient by location or transportation to every home in the state. The value of public school estates aggregates $40,000,000. The amount expended for public education in recent years for current maintenance has averaged over $10,000,000 annually. The system is rated excellent for accomplishment and achievement. The congestion of population in cities and large towns in Rhode Island lends itself to the housing of schools in commodious build- ings, and to the provision with such buildings of auxiliary accommodations not feasible in small buildings, such as shops for manual training, pre-vocational and vocational classes ; assembly halls for aggregate sessions, lectures, moving pictures, concerts, dramatics and whole-school exercises ; gymnasia, lunchrooms, libraries, study rooms, all of which suggest an enriched curriculum. While the type of building used for school purposes tends as a mat- ter of economy to simple lines, architects are finding ways of producing inexpensive, artistic effects that tend to relieve the "factory" cast and add distinction and beauty to schoolhouse construction. Occasionally a community finds in the building of a schoolhouse a way of expressing its aspiration to a finer conception of citizenship and a better exemplification of civic interest in the welfare of the rising generation. The Commissioner of Education once said that no building can be made finer than the civic aspirations of the community. A town may disclose a splendid ideal of service in the beauty and adequacy of its school buildings, making them temples of learning worthy of the public's greatest enterprise and most impor- tant investment. A stranger may measure somewhat the soul of a community as he looks at its schools.
Walter E. Ranger in 1930 completed a quarter-century as Commissioner; in recognition thereof the Rhode Island Institute of Instruction presented him with a watch chain engraved with the name of every town in Rhode Island, and a purse to which 4100 teachers contributed. A dinner in honor of the anniversary was attended by the commissioners from Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Hampshire and the presidents of Rhode Island State College, Rhode Island College of Education, Providence College and the University of Florida, besides several hundred teachers and superintendents.
*117,065 in public; 31,542 in private; total 148,607.
CHAPTER XXXIII. HIGHER EDUCATION IN RHODE ISLAND.
HODE ISLAND COLLEGE, later Brown University, the first institution of higher education in the state, and the first educational institution incorporated, was chartered by the General Assembly, in 1764, on the initiative principally of Baptists. The list of incorporators, Baptists and others, included many of the most influential citizens of Rhode Island of the period, and the governing body, although subject to control by a majority of Baptists, included representation of the then most populous denominations of Christians in Rhode Island. The General Assembly granted the charter without reserving a right to amend or to revoke, and without stipulating repre- sentation of the colonial government in the corporation. The charter of the college is unique among colonial college charters in the declaration :
That into this liberal and catholic institution shall never be admitted any religious tests ; but on the con- trary, all the members hereof shall forever enjoy full, free, absolute and uninterrupted Liberty of Conscience ; and that the places of professors, tutors and all other officers, the President alone excepted,* shall be free and open for all denominations of Protestants; and that youth of all religious denominations shall and may be freely admitted to the equal advantages, emoluments and honors of the college or university; and shall receive a like, fair, generous and equal treatment during their residence therein, they conducting themselves peaceably and conforming to the laws and statutes thereof. And that the public teaching shall, in general, respect the sciences ; and that the sectarian differences of opinions shall not make any part of the public and classical instruction ; although all religious controversies may be studied freely, examined and explained by the president, professors and tutors, in a personal, separate and distinct manner, to the youth of any or each denomination; and, above all, a constant regard be paid to, and effectual care taken of, the morals of the college.
Thus the charter conformed to the distinctive Rhode Island principle enunciated by Roger Williams, in so far as it enjoined liberty of conscience; but would permit, nevertheless, in the provision for free study and explanation of religious controversies, the development of a sem- inary for Baptist ministers, which was one of the significant purposes of obtaining in Rhode Island a charter for "a Baptist college established by law." In consideration of the "liberality and catholicity" imposed by the charter, the college was granted a sweeping and all-inclusive exemption of all its property from colonial and municipal taxation. As a further mark of favor, and in conformity with ancient European practices of granting privileges and immuni- ties in order to attract teachers and students to university cities, the estates, persons and fami- lies of the president and professors of the college, and the persons of tutors and students were exempted from taxes, jury duty and military service,t the last except in case of invasion. The exemption of the college estate from taxation has been upheld by the courts of Rhode Island in the most liberal interpretation possible .¿ A modification of the exemption from taxation of members of the faculty, limiting it to not exceeding $10,000 in each instance, was agreed to by General Assembly and college in 1863.
RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE-Rev. James Manning, graduate of the College of New Jersey, afterward Princeton, came to Rhode Island in 1763, and, with Rev. Morgan Edwards, under- took negotiations to obtain the charter. Dr. Manning remained as first President of Rhode Island College, Professor of Languages and only member of the faculty, when the college
*Amended by agreement to permit the election of other than a Baptist as President.
tExemption from colonial and state service, not from federal.
#Brown University vs. Granger, 19 R. I. 704.
960
RHODE ISLAND-THREE CENTURIES OF DEMOCRACY
opened as a Latin School at Warren, in 1764, with one student-William Rogers. Five years later the accumulative aggregate of enrollments had reached twenty-nine. The college was still at Warren, in 1767, where Dr. Manning was pastor of the Baptist Church. The General Assembly, in that year, granted a lottery to complete the parsonage of the Baptist Church at Warren, where "Dr. Manning hath now under his care several pupils to be educated in the liberal arts, who cannot be accommodated in the said house in its present condition." William Rogers was not only first student in Rhode Island College, but also first in the Latin prepara- tory school, which later was known as the University Grammar School. Because of the growth of the college, David Howell was appointed as tutor in 1767 with a salary of £72 lawful money. Later he became a professor in the college. Howell was a graduate of the College of New Jersey ; his coming to Rhode Island brought to Colony and state a brilliant genius. Howell was an outstanding figure because of his defence of state rights in the Con- gress of the Confederation ; § he was later an associate Justice of the Supreme Court of Rhode Island, Attorney General, and Justice of the United States District Court. The first commencement exercises were conducted at Warren September 7, 1769. The first class included James Mitchell Varnum, who rose to the rank of Brigadier General in the Revolu- tionary War, was a lawyer distinguished for brilliant forensic ability, member of the Conti- nental Congress, and died prematurely at the age of forty-one years in 1789, within a short time after he had removed to Marietta, Ohio, to become a justice in the Northwest Territory ; William Rogers, first and for nine months only student under Dr. Manning's instruction, who subsequently was noted as a Baptist minister, teacher and editor, and was awarded honor- ary degrees at Yale, Princeton and the College of Philadelphia; Richard Stites, lawyer, who died from the effects of wounds inflicted at the Battle of Long Island; Charles Thompson, Baptist minister, who succeeded Dr. Manning at Warren and was a trustee of the college; William Williams, Baptist minister and teacher, subsequently a member of the board of fel- lows; Joseph Eaton, physician, who died prematurely, aged twenty-five, in 1775; and Joseph Belton, who died in Philadelphia in 1785. Of the commencement exercises the "Providence Gazette" said: "Not only the candidates, but even the President, were dressed in American manufactures," indicating an intense patriotism already developed in Rhode Island College. The "Newport Mercury" reported as part of the exercises "a forensic dispute in English" on the thesis: "The Americans, in their present cricumstances, cannot, consistent with good policy, affect to become an independent state." Curiously, James Mitchell Varnum, who was later to become one of the ablest of Washington's generals, defended the thesis "by cogent arguments handsomely dressed, though he was subtly but delicately opposed by Mr. Wil- liams, both of whom," said the "Mercury," "spoke with much emphasis and propriety." "The audience (consisting of the principal gentlemen and ladies of this colony, and many of the neighboring governments), though large and crowded, behaved with the utmost decorum." The time had not yet arrived in which the sheriff of Providence County and all his deputies would be assigned to attend the college commencement for the purpose of preserving order.
Meanwhile vigorous and effective methods had been undertaken to obtain financial sup- port for the ambitious new college. Rev. Morgan Edwards went to Ireland and England in 1766 to solicit funds, and obtained the equivalent of $4300, a quarter of which was contributed in Ireland. The Island of Saints and Scholars was more sympathetic than the mother country, which at the time was incensed by the obstinacy of her American colonies in opposing the stamp act. Subscriptions amounting to $1700 were obtained for the college in South Carolina and Georgia, by Rev. Hezekiah Smith. Contributions and collections were taken in all Bap- tist churches, members being urged to contribute at least sixpence annually for the support of the college. The purpose had been the establishment of a Baptist college; the Baptist denom- ination immediately assumed principal responsibility for its support. In these later days of
§ Chapter XIV.
RHODE ISLAND COLLEGE OF EDUCATION WITH STATE HOUSE IN BACKGROUND
961
HIGHER EDUCATION
munificent gifts to enrich college endowments the large number of small contributions to the first fund raised for Rhode Island College appears amazing. Yet a parallel for it is found in the collection in the twentieth century of the fund for Providence College-the great bulk of which was contributed in small amounts by thousands of persons who had little to give but who gave that little generously. So it was with Rhode Island College in the beginning, gifts so low in amount as one shilling being recorded.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.