appropriates, annually, from the treasury, $90,000, for the support of Common Schools, or about $2.25 to each pupil. In Connecticut, the entire income of her school fund is thus devoted, yielding $1 per scholar, in addition to which a State tax is laid which adds fifty cents per scholar to that sum. The legislature of Maine has, during the present winter, levied a State tax of one mill on the dollar for the same purpose. Passing from New England we learn that the same system has prevailed in the great State of New York, since 1851. As we find in this State conditions similar to our own in respect to the unequal distribution of population and wealth, her example has a special significance for us. In the year just mentioned an Act was passed to abolish the "rate system," which had hitherto prevailed, and to establish free schools instead; also, to raise $800,000, by a State tax, for their support. At the end of three years, a fixed rate was substituted for a fixed sum, on the ground that, while the rate remained the same, the amount raised would gradually increase to meet the wants of the growing population. The policy thus initiated, although it met at the first with some local opposition, chiefly from the city of New York, numbered among its advocates the ablest men of the State, some of whom have earned more than a national reputation; and is now justly regarded with universal favor, both in the city and the country as the "corner stone" of her free-school system. The present rate is one and one-fourth mills on the dollar; and the amount raised in 1871 was $2,416,000. Adding to this the income of permanent funds, and deducting sundry general expenses, the amount appropriated to the Public Schools, for 1872, is nearly $2,600,000,* considerably more than one-third of the whole sum expended for their support in 1871. I need not say that from the period first mentioned the evidences of progress in the Public School system of New York have multiplied with a rapidity scarcely paralleled in any other State in the Union, and that no small share of this is owing, as those who administer it declare, to the policy which I have described. I am indebted to the report of Mr. Northrop, Secretary of the Connecticut Board of Education, made in June last, for the following statements in relation to the methods adopted by other States than those already named for the support of their schools. * Of this sum, the county of New York contributes nearly $800,000 more than it receives. Alabama.-The constitution adopted in 1867 provides that "onefifth of the aggregate annual revenue of the State shall be devoted exclusively to the maintenance of public schools." Arkansas.-The school law of 1868 provides that a tax of " one dollar ** per capita on every male inhabitant over the age of twentyone years, and so much of the ordinary annual revenues of the State as may hereafter be set apart by law for such purposes, shall be faithfully appropriated for maintaining a system of free Common Schools in this State." California.-School laws of 1869. "An annual ad valorem tax of ten cents on each one hundred dollars" (equal to one mill on the dollar), is levied upon "all taxable property throughout the State," for school purposes, and is "called and known as the State School Tax." Georgia. The school law of 1870 specifies several sources of revenue for the "State Common School Fund," and makes it "the duty of the State Board of Education to determine the amount which, in addition to the foregoing, shall be raised annually by taxation upon all the taxable property of the State, and to report annually to the general assembly the estimate which they may find necessary to support a school in each school district in the State, at least three months in each year." Illinois. The school law of 1865 provides for "the annual levy ** of two mills on each dollar's valuation of all the taxable property in the State." But while this law is levied under a law of the State, and is usually called the "State School Tax " it is, in effect, a tax upon each county, to support Public Schools within the county. Kansas.-The present school law provides that " one mill upon the dollar valuation of all the taxable property of the State" shall be "assessed annually ** for the support of Common Schools." Kentucky.-The school law of March 21st, 1870, speaks of "the annual tax of five cents on each one hundred dollars ** heretofore imposed by law, and the annual tax of fifteen cents imposed by an act passed at the present session of the general assembly" (in all, two mills on the dollar). Louisiana.-The school law of 1869 provides that "for school purposes there shall annually be levied ** and collected ** two mills on the dollar upon all the taxable property in each parish," i. e. county. Maryland. The school law of 1865 provided for "a State tax of fifteen cents on each one hundred dollars of taxable property throughout the State" (equal to one and a half mills on the dollar). This law has been superseded by another, but there is still a State school tax, which yielded $405,751.51, for the year ending September 30th, 1869. New Jersey.-The school law passed in March, 1871, reads thus: "For the purpose of maintaining Free Public Schools, there shall be assessed, levied and collected annually ** a State school tax of two (2) mills on each dollar of the valuation." The State superintendent writes, "the receipts from the two mill school tax next year will be $1,098,684. In addition to this, the State continues the appropriation heretofore made of $100,000, making a total State appropriation of $1,198,684 for school purposes next year. This gives $4.64 for every child between 5 and 18 years of age." North Carolina.-The school report for the year ending September 30th, 1870, gives the "Public School revenue " for that year as fol Ohio. The school laws of 1865 provide for a State school tax "of one and three-tenths mills on the dollar," to "be applied exclusively to the support of Common Schools." In the year 1869–70, this tax yielded $1,452,445.85. Pennsylvania.-There is no separate State tax for schools, but the appropriation from the State treasury for school purposes is $500,000 a year. Of this, $83,300 is expended for Normal Schools and the sala-. ries of county superintendents; the remainder, $416,700, is paid directly for Public Schools. Virginia.-The school law adopted July, 1870, provides for " a capitation tax not exceeding one dollar per annum, on every male citizen," of "the age of 21 years, and such tax on property, not less than one mill, nor more than 5 mills, on the dollar, as the general assembly shall from time to time order to be levied." West Virginia.-The law of 1865 provides for "a capitation tax of one dollar on each * * male inhabitant over 21 years of age,” and “a tax of ten cents upon the hundred dollars' valuation of all taxable property of the State." Among the States named are several whose Public Schools rank among the highest in the country. Of the States not named some have large permanent funds, the income of which is sufficient to give the needed aid to their schools without a resort to taxation. Having thus, as briefly and fairly as I could, presented the unequal burdens which the present mode of supporting our Public Schools imposes, and the remedy which, in the light of reason and experience, seems the most wise and just, I commend the subject to the calm judgment of those on whom the responsibility of decisive action rests. BOSTON, 1872. JOSEPH WHITE. |