Education in the United States: its history from the earliest settlements

 By Richard Gause Boone (1907)


Speaking generally, most early funds were local and annual. This is especially true of New England and Pennsylvania, where the idea of local self-government was strong.  For a different reason also the same statement applies to parts of the South where as in Rhode Island, education was put alongside of religion as a matter of personal and domestic concern.  The district system, as will appear elsewhere, is a phase of this same early tendency to divide authority, distributing the school control among many small and independent corporations. First appearing in New England, it has, at some time, been upon the statute-books of more than half the States of the Union. It was part of the general impulse toward the sharing of administrative power, educational, political, and religious, which was a vigorous and long-lived reaction against the unreasoning monarchism which had prevailed into modern times, and been imposed upon our forefathers.  p. 83-84

Each individual school was a law unto itself; uniformity was out of the question.  Schools were efficient or neglected according to the local management. To a greater or less extent this must always be true, even in cities. It is the personal localized effort that brings success.  p. 95

...the "district system," the extreme decentralization, p. 96

The district system of school management took its rise in the colonial period of New England, and implies the setting off of towns and townships into smaller bodies, and the erection of these into independent corporations. They were possessed of legal powers of holding property, levying taxes, etc., and filled a large place in the life of the time. The town, in New england, was the unit in all civil affairs. The recognition of its functions gave character to the only two school systems formed before the Revolution. The substitution of the district, in educational matters, and the rise of "school societies," form an interesting piece of history.

First introduced into Connecticut (1701) and half a century later into Rhode Island, the principle was incorporated into the revised Code of Massachusetts in the year 1789. It was the provision of this act, concerning "school districts," which Mr. Mann pronounced the most disastrous feature in the whole history of educational legislation in Massachusetts. Vermont seven years before, and New Hampshire in 1805, made like changes.  

In Rhode Island these minor districts were called "squadrons," and were given the entire "management of their school-houses and lands, leasing out the latter, and employing schoolmasters as was most agreeable to them." Massachusetts soon (1800) authorized district taxation--a measure from whose mischievous implications the State did not free itself for seventy years.  New York, with Ohio, Illinois, and other Western States, passed similar enactments. Throughout New England at the opening of the century the district had become the educational unit, while outside of New England (excluding the South), in a single generation, it predominated in half the States. The system represents the extreme in self-government. A study of its development in Connecticut will perhaps best reveal its character and influence.

An act of the General Assembly of Connecticut (1701) provided that "the inhabitants of each town in the colony shall pay annually forty shillings in every thousand pounds in their respective lists toward the maintenance of a schoolmaster." Some of the towns were large and contained parishes or ecclesiastical bodies--churches; and eleven years later it was ordered that, "for the bringing up of their children and the maintenance of a school," they (the churches) should receive the money collected among them. The ecclesiastical body thus became a civil organization holding an official relation to the management of schools sustained by public funds.

Originally, in New England, the parish was coextensive with the town; the two were coincident indeed. The citizens in the one were members in the other. The same in constituency, the same in territorial limits, and co-ordinate in functions, there was no more occasion for friction, or difference of opinion, than among the members of either. The interests of one were the interests of both. But, with the growth of towns, religious care led to their division into distinct parishes; with the diversity of religious belief came the affiliation of those of like sentiments, without regard to geographical limits. The parish had lost its fixed existence, while maintaining its functions and organization. It was under these conditions that the Connecticut law was enacted. The step was a new one, and away from the common-school idea of New England--amounting practically to the establishment of school districts within towns. Authority was divided, and the direction of education put into the hands of a class. It pointed to a delegation of authority that is ruinous. The parish was as yet, however, only a district, deriving all its power, as did other districts, from the civil body. It could initiate nothing; it levied no taxes; it changed no law. Forty years after, it was enacted that, when a town consisted of but one ecclesiastical society, the selectmen of the town should manage the schools; but that when it included more than one, a committee from each society should be empowered to manage lands and funds. By 1767 these parishes were allowed each a separate treasurer; and, before the close of the century, towns had been authorized, by the new State Legislature, to incorporate themselves into "school societies." In the revision and codification of laws, 1799, it was ordered that they should have full power "to grant rates for building and repairing; to appoint their own committees; to provide teachers; and to manage the prudentials of their schools." This seems the extreme of deterioration. So wide-spread was the influence, that few States in the Union escaped it.

Growing out of these applications of the principle of decentralization were two evils that were vicious in every  way, and call for special mention.

The first, though an incident of the system in Connecticut, and not found in most States, was the farming out of school revenues to religious bodies. [The claims, on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church, for participation in the control of school revenues, suggest that the question has a present significance also.]  It was subversive of the civil and social unity. It was yet one more encroachment of the ecclesiastical upon the civil and personal life, because of which Puritan and Huguenot had left their European homes. So disastrous have been felt to be its implications, by the newer States and in recent years, that seventeen of the thirty-eight States have seen fit to incorporate into the body of their Constitutions the provision that "no religious sect or sects shall ever control any part of the common-school or university funds."

But, aside from its ecclesiastical aspects, the district system seems generally to have worked mischief except in an occasional thriving and homogeneous community. Along with the unequal distribution of wealth, the system leads to great inequality in the means and provisions of education; to short terms or poor teachers, or both; and in imposing upon indigence and improvidence the education of its own, tends directly to class distinctions. In Massachusetts, for example, it is said that one third of the State's taxable property is found within a radius of ten miles about Boston. Without apportionment equalizing the revenues, schools in the more distant parts must be very insufficiently supported.

The system, moreover, in its ultimate development makes each school an independent organization, assigns mixed classes to the same teacher, obstructs gradation, and, besides being a wasteful practice financially, ignores the plainest pedagogical principles of instruction. During the administration of Horace Mann, certain townships "abolished their districts, assuming control of their schools in a corporate capacity," but twenty years later it was said: "So fully are most citizens attached to this system, so fully persuaded that centralized power is dangerous, that the township ought not to be intrusted with the entire care of schools (although its officers preside in every other department), and that the reserved right of having an agent to have the care of their school-houses, and to employ the teachers of their children, is a privilege of vital importance and not lightly to be relinquished--that there was little hope for better things." [Twenty-eighth Report of the MA Board of Education.]

In New York, but two decades ago, there was an almost entire disappearance of the township. Whatever local taxes were raised came through the districts; of one of which it was said (1865) "it had not taxed itself nor raised once cent by rate" during three years of the previous four. These small and weak but more or less independent districts in parts of New England, Delaware, some of the States West, and one or two others South, have constituted the greatest hindrances to the maturing of school systems. Strength comes from co-operation; differences are equalized, and public administration is made to contribute to a homogeneity that is civil no less than political safety.

But the influence of this division of authority is sometimes felt in States where the right to levy school-taxes has not been reserved to the district. With more or less of central organization, it frequently occurs that the right to select, examine, and hire teachers, rests in the neighborhood, while the township authorities are held to answer for the school's success. Inferior teachers, and favoritism in their selection, indifference in some neighborhoods, and the frequent shifting of instructors, are very serious evils, and all cluster about district management.

The great diversity in State administration, and in local administration among the States, makes any attempt to classify them as to local organization impracticable. In some, both township and district control are combined in respect to different though more or less conflicting functions. Nevertheless, there are certain general distinctions apparent. In twelve States the district system predominates, though in most of them the union of districts is legalized. In general this form characterizes the older colonies, or those whose institutions are of the New England cast. The organization by counties prevails in the South, as it did in the days of Jefferson.  In eighteen States, chiefly Western, the township is the unit most civil affairs, education included.

Not until 1856 were "school societies" and parish educational corporations abolished in Connecticut, and many years later the union of districts authorized. In Massachusetts the change occurred less than twenty years ago, and in Rhode Island soon after. In the reorganization of schools during the middle of the century, while this change came after State management and supervision, and partly as a result of these, it was also in part an outgrowth of causes which led to these, and so exhibits one form of the wide-spread tendency of the period toward centralization.   p. 96-101


In most of the States the services of the superintendent are supplemented by a general Board of Education, of which he is, ex officio, a member, and whose two chief functions are the examination of teachers, directly or indirectly, and the management of the State school-funds. Of the thirty-eight States, twenty-three have such boards. Three others---Arkansas, New Hampshire, and West Virginia--provide bodies corporate for the control of the funds.... p. 107














 

The NH House and Senate have overwhelming voted in support of two home educations bills which are expected to go before the Governor in early June.  Legislative support on these bills is sufficient to override any potential veto by the Governor.

House Bill 545 removes the requirement for home educators to notify their district or participating agency annually and replaces this provision with a one-time notification process. 

House Bill 1571 removes the requirement to submit annual evaluations for home educated children.  Evaluations of home educated children are still required, but they remain with the parents in their home.  This provides equity with private schools, which are not required to submit annual evaluations for their students. It also provides a layer of privacy for home educated children, which is particularly important given all the data mining that the federal government is conducting on students without the consent of parents. 

HB 1571 also removes the provisions for probation, grievance conferences, and termination of home programs. If there's probable cause to believe that the child is not being educated, parents can simply produce their evaluation results to demonstrate that their child's academic needs are being met.

The home education law will finally respect parental rights in education.   Parents are assumed to be innocent until proven guilty of educational neglect. They won't have to prove themselves innocent annually. Given that 71% of all NH school districts are currently in need of improvement and none of those schools are being shut down, it's only equitable that home education programs are not terminated when a home education child might be in need of improvement.

Parents and public school teachers will be able to work together in the best interests of the child without fear of retribution should a child need remedial help.  No more threats of probation or termination of home programs. 

For more information on these bills, join NH Families for Education's Facebook group.

Instead of attempting to address both education funding reform and  curricula reform in a single Constitutional amendment, there's an effort underway to split the existing dual purpose amendments into two single-purpose amendments.   It's simpler and less controversial.

A revised CACR 12  would resolve education funding, without undermining local control or opening the door to a broad base tax.

A revised CACR 8 would restore local control and the "exclusive" right clause that disappeared in 1968, without including supplementary State funding, which did not belong in Part I of the NH Constitution, the Bill of Rights.

Here's the text of the two revised Constitutional amendments:

CACR 8 -- updated to address only local control:

[Art.] 6. [[Morality and Piety.]]

As morality and piety, rightly grounded on high principles, and inculcating the precepts of self-government embodied in this constitution, will give the best and greatest security to government, and will lay, in the hearts of men, the strongest obligations to due subjection; and as the knowledge of these is most likely to be propagated through a society by the establishment of schools; therefore, to promote these purposes, the people of this state have the right to empower, and do hereby fully empower the legislature to authorize from time to time, the people within the political subdivisions of this state to make provision, at their own expense, for the support and maintenance of teachers and schools.

Provided, notwithstanding, that all schools, public and non-public, [the several parishes, bodies, corporate, or religious societies] shall at all times have the exclusive right of electing their own teachers, of contracting with them for their support [or] and maintenance, [or both.] and of defining and establishing their own curricula.

But no person shall ever be compelled to pay towards the support of the schools of any religious persuasion, sect or denomination. And every person, persuasion, denomination or sect shall be equally under the protection of the law; and no subordination of any one sect, denomination or persuasion to another shall ever be established.
 

CACR 12 -- updated to address only education funding reform:

[Art.] 5-c [Public Education.] "In fulfillment of the provisions with respect to education set forth in Part II, Article 83, the Legislature shall have the full power and authority to mitigate local disparities in educational opportunity and fiscal capacity.

In the advancement (or fulfillment) thereof, the Legislature shall have full power and authority to determine the amount of, and the method of raising and distributing, state funding for public education,  so long as such determinations and methods are not otherwise repugnant or contrary to this constitution." 

NH Families for Education supports these revisions.  If you agree with this concept, please ask Representatives and Senators to support this plan by contacting them as follows: hreps@leg.state.nh.us and Senators@leg.state.nh.us.
 

The Laws of the State of New-Hampshire (1815)

Passed Dec. 28, 1805. An Act empowering school districts to build and repair school-houses, and regulating schools.

Sect. 1 Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives, in general court convened, that the several towns and places within this state be, and they hereby are respectively empowered at any legal meeting for that purpose, to divide into school districts, and to define the limits thereof, and the same from time to time to alter in such manner as shall be thought fit and convenient; and a record of such division and alteration shall be make in the clerk's office of such town or place within three months after any such division or alteration shall have taken place; and no person shall have a right to send to, or receive any benefit from any school in a district where he is not a resident without the consent of such district.

Sect. 2. And be it further enacted, That the inhabitants of the several school districts, whose limits are or shall be defined as aforesaid, qualified to vote in town affairs, be, and they hereby are empowered, at any meeting called in the manner hereinafter prescribed, to raise money for the purposes of erecting, repairing or purchasing a school-house, in their respective districts, and of necessary utensils for the same; to determine in what part of the district to erect said school-house; to choose a committee to superintend the building and repairing of said school-house, or for purchasing the same; and to choose a clerk, who shall be sworn to a faithful discharge of the duties of his office; whose duty it shall be to make a fair record of all votes passed at any meeting of the district, and to certify the same when required; and the money raised as aforesaid shall be assessed and collected in the manner as is hereinafter provided.

Sect. 3. And be it further enacted, That for the purposes aforesaid, every person shall be taxed in the district in which he lives for all the estate he holds in the town, being under his own actual improvement, and all other of his real estate in the same town, shall be taxed in the district in which it is included; and lands when the owner thereof lives without the town, shall be taxed in such district as the selectmen, having regard to the local situation thereof, shall appoint; and it shall be the duty of the selectmen before they assess a tax for any district, to determine in which district such lands respectively shall be taxed, and to certify in writing their determination to the clerk of the town, who shall record the same, and such land while owned by any person residing without the limits of the town, shall be taxed in such districts until the town shall be districted anew; Provided however, that all the lands within any town owned by the same person not living therein, shall be taxed in one and the same district; and the selectmen shall assess in the same manner as town taxes are assessed on the polls and estates of the inhabitants composing any school district defined as aforesaid, and on lands in said town, belonging to persons living out of the same, which the selectmen shall have directed to be taxed in such district, all monies voted to be raised by the inhabitants of such district for the purposes aforesaid, in thirty days after the clerk of the district shall certify to said selectmen the sum voted by the district to be raised aforesaid; and it shall be the duty of said selectmen to make a warrant directed to one of the collectors of the town to which such district belongs, empowering and requiring said collector to levy and collect the tax so assessed, and to pay the same within a time limited in said warrant, to the treasurer or selectmen of the town, to whom a certificate of the assessment shall be made by the assessors, and the money so collected and paid shall be at the disposal of the committee of the district, to be by them applied for the building, repairing or purchasing of a school-house in the district to which they belong; and such collector in collecting such tax, shall have the same powers, and be holded to proceed in the same manner as is by law provided in collecting town taxes.

Sect. 4. And be it further enacted, That the treasurer or selectmen of any town to whom a certificate of the assessment of a district tax shall be transmitted as aforesaid, shall have the same authority to enforce the collection and payment so assessed and certified as if the same had been voted to be raised by the town for the town's use.

Sect. 5. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the selectmen of the several towns and places divided in school districts as aforesaid, upon application made to them, in writing, by three or more freeholders resident within any school district in their respective towns, to issue their warrant directed to one of the persons making such application, requiring him to warn the inhabitants of such district, qualified to vote in town affairs, to meet at such time and place in the same district, as the selectmen shall in their warrant appoint; and the warning aforesaid, shall be by notifying personally every person in the district qualified to vote in town affairs, or by leaving at their usual places of abode a notification in writing, expressing therein the time, place and purpose of the meeting, ten days at least before the time appointed for holding the same; and any vote to raise money passed by a majority of the inhabitants of any school district present, at any district meeting holden pursuant to this act, shall be obligatory on the inhabitants of said district, to be assessed, levied and collected, as prescribed in this act.

Sect. 6. And be it further enacted, That if the inhabitants of any school district cannot agree where to erect a school-house for the accommodation of the same, the selectmen of the town to which such district belongs, upon application made to them by the committee of the district, are hereby authorized and empowered to determine on the place where a school-house, for the use and accommodation of the district, shall be erected.  Approved December 28, 1805.

Laws of New Hampshire: Second Constitutional Period, 1829-1835, pg. 476

Chapter 28 An Act in Amendment of an Act for the Support and Regulation of Primary Schools, Passed July 6, 1827.

Sec. 1.  Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Court convened, That it shall be the duty of the Selectmen of the several towns and places in this State, to assign to each school district in their respective towns and places a proportion of the money assessed in each year for the support of schools according to the valuation thereof for that year, unless the said towns and places shall at a meeting holden for the purpose direct it to be divided according to the number of scholars in each district.

Sec 2. And be it further enacted, That the second section of the second Act of which this is an amendment be and is hereby repealed.

The Compiled Statutes of the State of New Hampshire (1853), pg. 165

Chapter 73. Of the Creation and Division of School Districts.

Section 1.  Every town shall be divided by metes and bounds into so many districts as the public good requires, which shall be distinguished by suitable boundaries and include all the territory of the town.

Sec. 2. At any legal meeting for that purpose such division may be made by vote of the town, and the limits of such districts defined and from time to time altered as convenience may require, a record of which shall be made.

Sec. 3. If any town shall neglect so to divide itself into school districts, the selectmen on application in writing by ten legal voters shall forthwith divide the town into districts, define their boundaries and cause a record thereof to be made by the town clerk within thirty days after such application. The town of Newington is exempted from this section.

Sec. 4. Every school district shall be a body politic and corporate, and may sue and be sued, take, hold, manage and convey real and personal property for the use of the district, and make and enforce all necessary contracts in relation thereto.

Sec. 5. Any town not divided as foresaid shall be considered, when necessary, as one district, and shall be entitled to all the rights and subject to all the liabilities of a town and of a district respectively.

Sec. 6. If the selectmen of any town shall neglect for six months after application make, to make a division as aforesaid, they shall forfeit a sum not exceeding one hundred dollars.

Sec. 7. When a new district is formed from one or more districts, the selectmen upon the petition of a majority of the legal voters of such a new district, shall appraise all the property belonging to and all the debts due by each district so divided.

Sec. 8. If the property exceed the debts, the selectmen shall assess upon the polls and ratable estate of that part of the district retaining such property, a reasonable sum not exceeding the proportion of the excess which the polls and ratable estates of the parts of the district so divided bear to each other, and shall assess and collect the same in the same manner as school house taxes, and cause the same to be paid over and applied for the use of such new district.

Sec. 9. Two or more contiguous districts in adjoining towns may, upon such terms as they shall think proper, unite in the support of schools to be kept from year to year, so long as they agree, within either of such towns for the common benefit of such districts, and it shall be lawful for the prudential committees of such districts, so long as such union exists, to expend in the support of said schools the proportions of school money assigned to their respective districts by the selectmen of their respective towns.

Sec. 10. Each of the districts so uniting shall maintain its separate organization, and may raise money to build, repair, alter, remove and furnish a school house and other necessary buildings for their common use, although the same be not located within the district raising the money, and the money so raised shall be assessed and collected in the same manner as though it had been raised to build a school house within such district.

Sec. 11. When an execution shall issue against any school district, a copy thereof shall be left with one of the selectmen of the town, and the selectmen shall assess the inhabitants of such district in a sum sufficient to satisfy the same, and shall have the same authority in the collection thereof that they now have in the collection of town taxes.

Sec 12. The selectmen of two or more adjoining towns, on petition  of any member of any school district in either of said towns, may, by a majority of the selectmen in each town,  disannex such member, together with his taxable property, for school purposes, from the district to which he belongs, and annex him to the some district of one of the adjoining towns.

Sec. 14. The selectmen of the town in which the school house is located shall have all the powers and are required to perform all the duties in relation to filling vacancies in said district, that the selectmen of towns now have.

Sec. 15. Whenever a school district, composed of inhabitants of different towns, shall vote to raise money for the purpose of building, buying or repairing a school house, it shall be the duty of the clerk of said district to notify the selectmen of the several towns, in which the persons belonging to such district may reside, of the amount of money so voted to be raised, and it shall be the duty of the selectmen of each of said towns, thereupon, to assess upon the polls and ratable estate of such persons residing in their respective towns, their due proportion of the sums so voted to be raised, having regard to the entire inventory of all the inhabitants of said district, and to cause the same to be collected and paid over to the person authorized by the district to receive it.

Sec. 16. All persons who have been, or may hereafter be, severed from any school district in one town, and annexed to a school district in any other town, for the purpose of schooling, shall pay a just proportion for the purchase, building or repairing school houses in said districts, to which they are or may be annexed.

Sec. 17. Whenever any such district shall vote to raise money, the clerk of said district shall certify such vote to the selectmen of each of said towns; and said selectmen shall form a joint board for the purpose of assessing upon the polls and ratable estate in said district the due proportion of said money; and each board of selectmen shall commit to the collectors of their respective towns the taxes by them so assessed in their respective towns, to be collected and paid over to the person or persons by said district authorized to receive the same, to be applied and accounted for according to law.

Sec. 18. All persons who have been, or hereafter may be, severed from any school district in one town and annexed to a school district  in any other town for the purpose of schooling, shall have and enjoy all the rights and privileges in regard to the literary and school funds of every description, to which they would have been entitled if they had not be so disannexed or united. And whenever the real estate of any person shall be disannexed for the purposes aforesaid, the polls and ratable estate of all persons residing or having their home on said real estate, on the first day of April of each year, shall also be considered as disannexed, and their proportion of the literary and school fund shall be paid over to the prudential school committee of the district to which said real estate has been annexed. It shall be the duty of the selectmen of the town from which any person or persons may be disannexed as aforesaid, to pay over the proportion of the literary and school fund as aforesaid to the prudential school committee as aforesaid, on or before the first day of February, annually.

Sec. 19. The town of Pittsburg and the town of Bartlett are exempt from the provisions of the law of this State in regard to the division of the town into school districts, and the selectmen thereof, respectively, may divide said towns or any part thereof, into as many school districts  as they may deem just, and cause a record thereof to be made in the records of said town, which districts shall have all the rights and privileges and be subject to all the liabilities of other school districts in the State.

Monday, April 2nd, in Legislative Office Building, Room 210-211, from 1:00 - 4:00 pm

Legislative Office Building (Behind the State House)

33 North Street, Room 210-2011

Concord, NH  03301

Learn how to

 Navigate the Legislative Process
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Know what's Going on in Concord
Testify Effectively in front of Committees
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Consider Serving as a State Representative

Speakers include:

 Hon. Don Gorman
Hon. John Burt
Hon. Laura Jones
Hon. Kyle Jones

 
Bring a friend, your questions and a pen and pad to take notes!

See you there!
 

For additional information call Rep. Laura Jones.

--
State Rep. Laura Jones
Strafford 1 - Rochester, NH
http://www.Jones4StateRep.com <http://www.jones4staterep.com/>
(603) 948-2264