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LIBRARY

UNIVERSITY OF

CALIFORNIA.

THE

PUBLIC SCHOOL SYSTEM OF CALIFORNIA.

PART I.

1. FOUNDATION.

THE foundation of the public school system of California was laid in the Constitutional Convention held in Monterey, September, 1849.

The Select Committee on the State Constitution reported, in Committee of the Whole, in favor of appropriating the five hundred thousand acres of land granted by Congress to new ~ States for the purpose of internal improvements, to constitute a perpetual School Fund, with a proviso, however, that the Legislature might appropriate the revenue so derived to other purposes if the exigencies of the State required it. An animated debate occurred on this proviso, in which Mr. Sherwood of Sacramento, and Mr. Jones of San Joaquin, were the principal speakers in favor of it; and Mr. Semple of Sonoma, and Mr. McCarver, opposed to it. The proviso was stricken out by the close vote of eighteen ayes to seventeen noes, thus securing an inviolable fund for school purposes. In the progress of the debate Mr. Semple spoke as follows:

"This is a subject upon which I have thought probably more than upon any other subject that has ever engrossed my attention. I regard it as a subject of peculiar importance here in California, from our location and the circumstances under which we are placed, the immense value of our lands, and the extent and wealth of the country. I think that here, above all places in the Union, we

should have, and we possess the resources to have, a well-regulated system of education.

"It is the duty of members of this House to unite together and secure that reputation, character and ability in our public teachers which can only be obtained by a liberal and permanent fund. It is the basis of a well-regulated school system that it shall be uniform throughout the State; that any surplus funds collected in one district shall not be appropriated in that district, but that the aggregate fund from all the districts shall be appropriated strictly to school purposes, and distributed equally throughout the State.

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"We should therefore carefully provide that this fund shall be used for no other purpose."

A section providing that a school should be kept in each district at least three months in each year, in order to secure any share of the State Fund, was adopted; an amendment by Mr. Hastings, to insert "six" months instead of "three," having i been rejected.

SIXTEENTH AND THIRTY-SIXTH SECTIONS.

Mr. Semple, of Sonoma, whose opinions on school matters seem to have been remarkably clear and correct, moved, as a substitute for a rejected section relating to collecting and disbursing the proceeds of fines for breach of penal laws, that all funds collected from any source, including, of course, the proceeds from the sales of the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections of township school lands, be paid into a common fund, to be apportioned according to the number of children.

William M. Gwin and Henry W. Halleck, both of San Francisco, spoke against the measure; and Mr. Semple defended it in an able speech. It was rejected, however, and the way was left open for a great deal of cumbersome legislation in vain attempts to form township school funds. Finally, after fifty thousand acres had been sold by various townships, the proceeds of which have never been heard of since, in 1861 a law was passed consolidating the proceeds into one common State School Fund, as proposed by Mr. Semple in 1849.)

THE TEST VOTE.

When Article IX, on education, came up for final adoption in the Convention, there was a lengthy debate on the policy of concurring with the action in Committee of the Whole in striking out the proviso in section second before mentioned. The

AND SCHOOL REPORTS.

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free public school in the State. The ordinance was crude, it is true, but it was the germ of all succeeding city ordinances. The following is a copy of the ordinance:

"1st. Be it ordained by the Common Council of San Francisco, That from and after the passage of this act, it shall be the duty of J. C. Pelton, who has been employed by the Council as a public teacher, to open a school in the Baptist Chapel.

"2d. Said school shall be opened from half-past eight o'clock A. M. to twelve o'clock M., and from two o'clock P. M. until five o'clock P. M., and shall continue open from Monday until Friday at five o'clock P. M.

"3d. The number of scholars shall not exceed the number of one hundred; and no scholar shall be admitted under the age of four or over the age of sixteen.

"4th. All persons desirous of having their children instructed in said school shall first obtain an order from the Chairman of the Committee on Education, and all children obtaining said order shall be instructed in said school free of charge.

“5th. It shall be the duty of said Pelton to report to the Council on the first of each and every month the number of scholars and the progress of said school.

"H. C. MURRAY. 66 'F. TILFORD."

4. THE PIONEER SCHOOLS.

On October 11, 1847, a committee of the Town Council contracted for the erection of a small schoolhouse of one room, on the southwest corner of the Plaza, at the corner of Clay Street and Brenham Place.

On February 23, 1848, a small number of voters assembled and elected a Board of School Trustees, consisting of Dr. Townsend, Dr. Fourgeaud, C. L. Ross, Wm. H. Davis and J. Serine. This board elected Thomas Douglass as teacher, at a salary of one thousand dollars a year, and the school opened on the 3d of April, 1848, with 6 pupils. This was in fact a tuition school under public auspices, it being free only to indigent pupils. The Town Council agreed to make up any deficiency in the salary of the teacher, to the extent of four hundred dollars. The estimated population of the town, April 1, 1848, was one thousand, with 60 children of school age. In May the school numbered 37 pupils.

On May 13, 1848, a new election of Trustees was ordered, and after a spirited contest the old board was re-elected. Soon after gold was discovered, the school dwindled to 8 pupils, and Schoolmaster Douglass closed his doors and started for the mines.

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