ANALYSIS OF THE SCHOOL RETURNS.

The returns furnished by the school committees of the several cities and towns of the Commonwealth show an increase in the number of persons between the ages of five and fifteen years of 5,359, and an increase in the number of schools of 138. This increase in the number of schools is about what might be expected from the increase in the number of persons in the enumeration; for, were those equally distributed among the 138 schools, it would give nearly 40 pupils to each school. All the counties in the State, except Nantucket, Norfolk, and Suffolk, report an increase in their enumeration, and some of them quite a large one. Essex reports 1,377 increase; Hampden, 1,129; Middlesex, 2,099; and Worcester, 1,847: while Suffolk reports a decrease of 2,826.

The enumeration made May 1, 1880, shows that there were 312,680 persons of school age; while the enrolment shows that the entire membership in all the schools for the year was 325,239, -a number greater than the enumeration by 12,559.

This does not indicate an error either in the enumeration or the enrolment; for the 25,000 pupils, more or less, in the schools over fifteen or under five years of age, and those who became five after May 1, and found their way into the schools during the year, are not included in the enumeration, but are in the enrolment. The average membership has been slightly greater than it was last year, but not enough to change perceptibly the per cent of attendance based upon it.

Only 281 towns report having made, even in part, the provisions required by law concerning truants, and this leaves 65 which have not complied with the statute. There seems to be an unwillingness on the part of some county commissioners to provide truant schools.

By their refusal or neglect, the commissioners are violating a wise and necessary statute of the Commonwealth, they are greatly increasing the difficulties the towns need to experience in providing for their truant children, and they are rendering the towns of their counties liable to lose their share of the income of the School Fund.

There is no subject connected with school attendance that demands more serious and earnest attention than truancy. School committees and teachers have for many years com

plained of the difficulties connected with an efficient discharge of their duties in the management of truant children. No proper disposition can be made of this class of children until a suitable place is provided by the town or county for their confinement, discipline, and instruction. A proper place is a school organized with all the facilities for exerting a good moral influence over the children, at the same time it provides a good common-school and industrial education. The truant class must not be neglected. Crime and pauperism are more expensive to a State than education, and a free State cannot afford to have a single person within its limits growing up in ignorance.

The money expended for support of schools, including only wages of teachers, fuel, and care of schoolrooms, is $4,130,714.11; and this, equally distributed among the persons found in the enumeration, gives to each $13.21.

If to the item above, $4,130,714.11, be added the cost of supervision ($159,313.79), of printing school reports ($12,450.45), and cost of books, stationery, maps, globes, and schoolroom supplies ($291,728.40), the entire amount raised by taxation and expended upon the public schools becomes $4,594,206.75; and this, equally distributed as before, gives to each $14.693.

If to the amount raised by taxation, $4,594,206.75, and expended upon the schools, there be added the amount not raised by taxation, namely, the income of funds as surplus revenue, or the dog-tax, appropriated to schools by the action of the towns ($183,072.36), voluntary contributions ($5,279.63) and the income of the State School Fund ($69,007.81), it gives. an amount of $4,851,566.55; and this, distributed as before, gives to each $15.516.

If to this amount, $4,851,566.55, there be added the amount laid out upon school-buildings, for new houses ($535,895.37), for permanent improvements ($267,545.67), and for ordinary repairs ($121,534.16), — the entire expenditure for all publicschool purposes becomes $5,776,541.75; and this, distributed as before, gives to each person in the enumeration $18.474.

SCHOOL LEGISLATION.

Massachusetts, throughout all the years of her history, has manifested an intense and intelligent interest in popular education.

COLONIAL LAWS.

As early as 1635 the inhabitants of Boston gave public expression to their ideas of the value and need of a public school for the teaching and nurturing of the children. In 1636 the General Court authorized an appropriation of four hundred pounds, for the establishment of a school or college. The school was established at Cambridge, and has since become Harvard University.

The first educational ordinance of the Colony was passed in 1642. "It required the selectmen of every town to have a vigilant eye over their brethren and neighbors, to see that none of them shall suffer so much barbarism in any of their families as not to endeavor to teach, by themselves and others, their children and apprentices so much learning as may enable them perfectly to read the English tongue, and [obtain a] knowledge of the capital laws."

A failure to comply with the ordinance was punished by a fine of twenty shillings.

The Act of 1642 enjoined upon the municipal authorities the duty of making education universal, but not necessarily free.

In 1647 another law was passed, making the support of public schools compulsory, and education universal and free. As this was the first law of the kind ever passed by any community of persons, or by any State, Massachusetts may claim the honor of having originated the free public school. At this time it was ordered that every town of one hundred families, in addition to its elementary schools, should establish and maintain a grammar school, which should fit pupils for the University at Cambridge.

In 1683 all towns of five hundred families were required to maintain two grammar schools and two writing schools.

These were the principal laws establishing and regulating the schools during the colonial period.

STATE LAWS.

In 1789 a general act was passed requiring every town to maintain one school for the term of six months, or two or more schools for terms of time that shall together be equivalent to six months, in which should be taught orthography, reading, writing, English grammar, geography, and decent behavior.

At this time it was ordered that the towns be divided into districts, for the purpose of facilitating the attendance of the children upon the schools. The schools were still to be under the direct control of the towns.

It was further ordered that towns of two hundred families, instead of one hundred, as before, should constitute the minimum number for supporting a grammar school, and that teachers should have a certificate of good moral, as well as intellectual, character.

In 1800 an act of the Legislature authorized the selectmen of the towns to call district meetings, at which the legal voters therein should raise money for building schoolhouses, and for supplying them with all necessary furniture.

In 1817 school districts were made corporations, and were empowered to hold property for the use of the schools.

In 1826 every town containing five hundred families was required to maintain a town or high school, which should differ from the old grammar school by omitting, from its curriculum of studies taught, the Latin and the Greek languages.

If the town contained four thousand inhabitants, it was required to maintain a higher grade of high school, in which the classic languages were to be taught.

The school law of 1826 was the first to require towns to elect a town school committee.

By a law passed in 1827, school districts were authorized to take care of their schoolhouses, and to contract with their school-teachers.

The returns of 1832 made it appear that the average amount paid for each pupil attending the public schools was $1.98. From the returns made in 1834 it was known that about fivesixths of the children of school age were in the public schools, while, as was supposed, the remaining one-sixth was in the private schools of the State. In the same year an act was passed making it unlawful to employ children under fifteen years of age in any manufacturing establishment, unless they had attended school the year next preceding for at least twelve weeks.

The Massachusetts School Fund was established in 1834. The act by which it was established provided that all moneys in the treasury derived from the sale of lands in the State of Maine, and from the claims of the State on the government of

the United States for military services, and not otherwise appropriated, together with fifty per centum of all moneys thereafter to be received from the sale of lands in the State of Maine, should be appropriated, to constitute a permanent fund for the aid and encouragement of common schools, provided that said fund shall never exceed one million of dollars. The limiting clause of the law has been amended, and the fund at present exceeds two million dollars.

The Board of Education was established in 1837. It consists of the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and eight persons appointed by the Governor, with the advice and consent of the Council. Each of the eight is appointed to hold office for eight years. The duties and powers of the Board are defined by the statutes. They are to hold in trust for the Commonwealth any grant of land and donation or bequest of money or other personal property made to it for educational purposes.

They are to prescribe the form of registers to be kept in the schools, and the form of the blanks and inquiries for the returns to be made by school committees. On or before the third Wednesday of January they are to lay before the Legislature a report containing a printed abstract of returns, and a detailed report of all the doings of the Board, with such observations upon the condition and efficiency of the system of popular education, and such suggestions concerning the best means of improving it, as the experience and reflection of the Board may dictate.

The Board may appoint its own secretary, whose duties are also prescribed by statute. Under the direction of the Board, he is to make an abstract of school returns; collect information. concerning the public schools; diffuse as widely as possible throughout the Commonwealth the best system of public instruction; visit, as often as other duties will permit, different parts of the Commonwealth; receive and arrange the reports of school committees, and distribute the State documents relating to the public-school system.

The secretary is also required to attend such meetings of teachers of public schools, members of school committees of the several towns, and friends of education, as may assemble for the purpose of discussing topics connected with the management of the schools; and he is at these meetings to devote himself to the object of collecting information relating to the condition of

.