FREE SCHOOL DEVELOPMENT WHILE MICHIGAN

WAS A TERRITORY, 1805-1837

The relation between schools and pauperism appeared very early in Michigan. It is seen in the following law enacted by the Territory of Michigan, February 26, 1809:

"Be it enacted by the Governor and Judges of the Territory of Michigan, That it shall be the duty of the overseers of the poor of such judicial district within this Territory, some time in the month of May next, to divide their respective districts into such sections as, in their judgment, will be most convenient for erecting school houses, and maintaining schools, which sections shall be styled school districts, which may be altered from time to time as will best accommodate the inhabitants."1

This seems to have been the first legislation for schools in Michigan and it is significant that the schools are placed under the care of the overseers of the poor.

In 1817, this idea again appears in the curious act establishing the Catholepistemiad, or University of Michigan. A section of this law provided that the tuition of indigent students should be paid from the public funds, as follows:

"If the judges of the court of any county, or a majority of them shall certify that the parent or guardian of any person has not the adequate means to defray the expense of the suitable instruction, and that the same ought to be a public charge, the honorarium (tuition) shall be paid from the treasury of Michigan."2

The writer has found no evidence of actual use of this provision. A law enacted by the Territorial legislature, April 12, 1827, is important. Its general provisions are modeled very closely after the Massachusetts law of 1647. Parts of section 6 and section 7 of this law are relevant.

"Sec. 6. And it shall be the further duty of the trustees of each district, as soon as may be, after the trustees have voted a tax, to make a rate-bill or tax list, which shall raise the sum voted, with 4 cents on the dollar for collection fees, on all the taxable inhabitants of said district, agreeable to the levy on which the township tax was levied the preceding year, and annex to the said tax list or rate bill a warrant."

1 Territorial Laws of Michigan, Vol. IV, p. 90.

? Report of the Commissioner of Education, 1897-98, Chap. XIII, p. 601. Territorial Laws of Michigan, Vol. II (pub. 1874), p. 472.

Section 7 provided for the exemption of parents of children of the poor from supplying fuel as follows:

"That no child or children shall be denied the privilege of attending school for or on account of the inability of the parent or parents, or master of such child or children, to supply his, her or their proportion of wood in such district.

The law was obligatory in all townships that adopted its pro visions by a two-thirds vote at an annual meeting. The use of the words "rate-bill or tax list" obscures the real meaning of section 6. It is not clear that a real rate-bill was meant. It may have meant this, and also a property tax, or the terms may have been synonymous. Smith and Sherman both assume that a tax is meant by section 6. The following facts seem to show that what was meant was really a tax: (1) The phraseology "taxable inhabitants"; (2) the trustees are to vote a tax; (3) it seems that the tax was to be in proportion to the township tax levy of the year previous. If the law really meant a tax, the use of the term rate-bill is inaccurate. Yet it is significant that the term appears in the law. The exemption feature of section 7 again shows clearly the relation between exemption from charges and pauperism.

A law enacted in 1829 provided for actual rate-bills. Section 17 provided that each person should be assessed in proportion to the number of days of school attended by his or her children. This makes it clear that tuition was meant. Section 24 provides exemption of the poor from payment of the tuition.2 Section 23 provides that persons living remote from the schoolhouse might be exempted from tax to build schoolhouses. If parents failed to supply fuel, their assessment would include a levy to pay for fuel.

1 Territorial Laws of Michigan, Vol. II (pub. 1874), p. 472.

2 Sec. 24. "That whenever there shall be within any school district any poor and indigent persons, unable to pay for the instruction of his or her children, or where there shall be poor children without parents in any district, the directors of such district may, in their discretion, order such children of poor parents, or those without parents, to be instructed at the school of said district, and the expense of instructing such children shall be raised by a tax upon the taxable inhabitants of such district, and the assessment and collection of such tax shall be in proportion and after the same manner as hereinbefore mentioned for the raising and collecting of other taxes in said district." (Laws of Michigan, 1829)

BEGINNINGS OF FREE SCHOOLS AND FREE SCHOOL

LEGISLATION UNDER THE FIRST

CONSTITUTION, 1837-1850

The next important action occurred while Michigan was organizing a state from a territory, and appears in section 3 of the article on education in the constitution as drafted in 1835, in the following:

"The legislature shall provide for a system of common schools by which a school shall be kept up and supported in each school district, at least three months in every year; and any school neglecting to keep up and support such a school may be deprived of its equal proportion of the interest of the public fund." (Shearman, 18. Hinsdale, Rept. U. S. Com. of Ed., 1892-1893)

This did not provide for free schools. It required, however, a minimum term of three months in each district, and this provision made the use of the rate-bill necessary in certain cases, in order to keep the school going for three months.

Governor Mason, the first chief executive of the state of Michigan, in his message of 1836, dwelt upon education as follows:

"It becomes then your imperious duty to secure to the State a general diffusion of knowledge. Your attention is therefore called to the effectuation of a perfect school system open to all classes, as the surest basis of public happiness and prosperity." (Shearman, p. 20)

The condition referred to was not realized as the governor recommended. The legislature of 1837 enacted a codification of school laws which seems to have been silent on the matter of rate-bills. Much was said about the financial conditions of the time by the legislators and the governor to indicate that this matter was absorbing all of the attention, and leaving little or none for the concerns of education.

The constitution adopted while Michigan was being admitted to statehood provided for a state superintendent of instruction. In harmony with this John D. Pierce was appointed by the governor to this office. No constructive educational legislation was undertaken until Mr. Pierce, at the request of the Assembly, outlined a system of schools. In his recommendations, he wrote in very definite terms: "Let free schools be established and

maintained in perpetuity and there can be no such thing as aristocracy in our land." He even went further and urged compulsory attendance for three months for all children between five and seventeen years.

Some conditions of school support and attendance in 1840 will be indicated before proceeding further. The total district tax amounted to $59,126. The total attendance was 47,901, or the districts were raising a small amount above one dollar per pupil for school support. This, together with all other sources, still necessitated the use of the rate-bill. As to real attendance, its status was discouraging. In 1841, the state superintendent estimated that "not more than one-half of our school attending children are in the habit of attending regularly summer and winter." (Shearman, p. 97) Ninety-seven districts had no schools. Such were some of the conditions with which the new system outlined by Mr. Pierce had to cope.

Governor William Woodbridge in his message of January 7, 1841, wrote as follows:

"The revenues necessary for the erection of schoolhouses, and the sustainment of the system generally, are derivable, first and principally from a course of taxation provided for by existing laws. The entire plan upon which this course of taxation is founded seems to me obnoxious to the most serious objections."

"Every system of taxation, to be just should be reasonable, equal and uniform. It is a proposition as notorious as it is lamentable, that the assessments of taxes for school purposes, are neither equal nor uniform, and in

some cases have been most highly unreasonable."

While his words were general, they referred to conditions, one of which was the rate-bill, a phase "obnoxious to the most serious objections." (SIC!)

The first free school law enacted in the state was a special act of 1842, for the city of Detroit. Section I reads as follows:

"Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Michigan, That the City of Detroit shall be considered as one school district, and hereafter all schools organized therein, in pursuance of this act, shall under the direction and regulation of the board of education, be public and free to all children residing within the limits thereof, between the ages of five and seventeen years inclusive."

This law has a very important bearing on later developments. It legalized free schools in a city, and even made it necessary to maintain them. Soon other cities demanded this privilege, and

the example of Detroit had its influence. This procedure was similar to developments in Connecticut.

While the year 1842 marked the enactment of the first free school law in Michigan, the year 1843 brought forth legislation fastening more firmly the rate-bill upon the common schools. This law empowered the assessor to collect rate-bills, if necessary, by distress and sale of goods and chattels. The moderator, director, and assessor were constituted a district board which was required "To exempt from payment of wages of teachers or providing fuel for use of the school, such indigent persons, as in their opinion should be so exempted." The director, at the request of any two persons liable for fuel and tuition bills, must call a meeting of all such liable, to consider need of raising school money. This had the effect of extending local district option in school matters. The same section exempted all persons liable for fuel bills, if they could show that they had provided their share of fuel. The director was required to make out all ratebills. (Laws, 1843, 88)

No definite information as to the amount of money collected by rate-bills was given until 1846, although earlier references are made to them, and their existence must have constituted a very serious problem. A township tax for the support of schools of one mill on the dollar was established in 1842, and amounted that year to $1,120 for the whole state.1 This shows, on the face of it, that the law was not in operation in the entire state. In 1846, certain items of school support were as follows: Ratebills $26,558; district tax $92,584; township tax $6,579. Thus four times as much was collected by rate-bills as by the township tax, while the district tax was about three and a half times as large as the total of the rate-bills. The attendance was very irregular, and complaints regarding this condition were frequent throughout this period, and even after the close of the Civil War. The school census of 1846 reported 97,568 children of school age in the state. In such districts as reported there were 4,578 children of school age who were also illiterate, and not attending school. It was also estimated that 15,000 children lived in such places that they had no access to schools. (Shearman, 154) The usual attitude toward the education situation was undoubtedly voiced in the message by Governor Alpheus Felch, January 1 Township taxation was established by the law of 1827.