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INCREASE IN RESOURCES OF DISTRICTS

cidental sources, by decades since 1870 is shown in the following table.

It will be noticed that tuition of non-resident pupils has become an item of considerable importance.

The total revenue of the districts, from all sources, in 1870 was $3,154,221.28; in 1880, $3,789,197.97; in 1890, $6,763,125.20; in 1900, $9,069,655.80.

CHAPTER X.

FREE SCHOOLS AND REQUIRED ATTENDANCE.

From the beginning of his educational work Superintendent Pierce advocated free schools, that is, schools supported entirely from the income of permanent funds and by taxation in some form upon the property of the State. And as a natural correlative he favored compulsory attendance for a certain portion of the year. In both these positions he was a long distance in advance of the general public sentiment of his day. The idea of a tuition fee was inherited from the territorial period, and the rate bill system was borrowed from New York.

In his first report Mr. Pierce said: "Let free schools be established and maintained in perpetuity, and there can be no such thing as a permanent aristocracy in our land; for the monopoly of wealth is powerless when mind is allowed freely to come in contact with mind. It is only by erecting a barrier between the rich and the poor, which can be done only by allowing the rich a monopoly of learning as well as wealth, that such an aristocracy can be established. The operation of the free school system has a powerful tendency to prevent the erection of this barrier. ** * * Can any plan be devised by which the principles of knowledge and virtue may be so diffused among the great body of the people, as the existence and perpetuity of our institutions require?

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*

The general impression is, that it may be done effectually by a well digested system of free schools. There is no alternative, this being the only process by which the whole population can be made acquainted with their rights and duties as citizens of our commonwealth." In speaking of attendance upon the schools he wrote: "It is proposed as a subject worthy the greatest consideration, whether the State can fulfil its high obligation to itself and suffer any to grow up in ignorance. It is apprehended to be the duty of the government to require of all persons, having the care of children, their education. And effectually to secure the accomplishment of this object, they should be required to send them to school the constitutional proportion of the year, between the ages of five and seventeen. * * * And in all this there is nothing inconsistent with the principles of rational liberty. It is merely providing for the safety of the State, for its health, happiness and vigorous growth. This duty stands on precisely the same ground as the law which obliges all the citizens to be enrolled and occasionally do military duty. It is a wise precautionary measure for the public security." These topics are further discussed in his second report: and, while he admits that primarily parents are responsible for the education of their children, he says: "It is well known this duty is neglected in innumerable instances. It is hence the right of the State so far to interpose its paternal authority, as to give additional weight to this obligation, and make such provision as will secure the desired result."

The Legislature was slow to respond to any suggestions or recommendations for making the public schools free, and providing for their support by either State, Township,

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119

or District taxation. Public sentiment did not at that period, demand such action. The first important step in the direction of free schools was taken in an act passed in 1842 relative to public schools in Detroit. In a sketch of the public schools of that city, written in 1850, by D. Bethune Duffield, Esq., the statement was made that, "previous to the year 1841, no such thing as a free school was known in the city of Detroit." Elementary education was in a most deplorable condition. There were scattered about the city twentynine schools, only one of which really deserved the name of school. The whole number of pupils in attendance upon these schools, such as they were, was only 700, in a city of nearly 10,000 inhabitants. The average cost of tuition was $17 a year for each scholar. This state of affairs, when fully understood, naturally aroused the attention and exciteed the interest of the benevolent and public spirited citizens. The act just referred to was secured from the Legislature. This law consolidated all the districts of the city into one, and created "The Board of Education of the City of Detroit." The powers of taxation for school purposes were at first carefully limited, but were sufficient to make the beginning of a system of free public schools. This was the first provision, of an extensive character, for such schools in the State. A little later the establishment of the graded and union system gradually provided other free schools, but their growth was slow. Reference has been made in another chapter to the discussions in the constitution directing the Legislature, within five years after the adoption of the constitution, to provide for a free school in every district of the State, for at least three months in each year. If the Legislature had heeded this mandate of the consti

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PUBLIC OPINION AS TO FREE SCHOOLS

tution, Michigan would not be compelled to bear the disgrace of having been one of the last States to abolish the "rate bill." But no power, save an imperative and strongly expressed public sentiment can coerce the Legislative body of an American State: and public sentiment in our State between the years 1850 and 1860 was not unanimously imperative in this direction.

The state of public opinion generally may be inferred from a debate which occurred in the State teachers' association in the year 1858. At its meeting in that year a paper was read upon the question: "Ought our schools to be free?" The reader of the paper did not, on the whole, fayor schools entirely free except under certain peculiar conditions. In the debate which followsd the reading, Dr. A. Winchell of the State University, expressed grave doubts of the wisdom of making the public schools generally free, although some of the union schools might be made so with advantage. He thought a great public school fund an injury rather than a benefit to the cause of education. Men, he said, estimated the value of a thing by its direct, obvious cost to them. If education costs nothing it will be estimated accordingly.

Professor Hosford of Olivet College concurred in the views of Dr. Winchell. He also expressed opposition to a compulsory school law. Among other things he said: "Cheapen education to the zero point, and the masses will value it at zero. You will frustrate the design unless you compel the people to keep their children in school. What would our people think to see a law passed making it a penal offense to keep a child from school? It would not do. We may have the compulsory system, but this sys