CHAPTER XVII FUNDS AND TAXATION MUCH has been written on the subject of school funds and taxation for public education, but of this literature only a few extracts which are especially illustrative are here reproduced. The three relating to the history of permanent school funds are illustrative of types. The history of the Massachusetts fund is that of a state which received no land grants, but has itself built up a fund of moderate size, and which it now uses to assist only its poorer communities. The history of the Wisconsin school fund is typical of the waste and mismanagement which characterized most of the earlier grants for education. The sketch of the Minnesota fund is typical of the newer attitude toward these grants, and of the efforts now being made by a number of the states to preserve what is left of their grants. But few states will be able to develop so large a fund as will Minnesota. I. HISTORY OF THE MASSACHUSETTS SCHOOL FUND [From the 64th An. Rept. of the Mass. Bd. of Educ. 1899-1900, pp. 16-21.] The Massachusetts school fund was established in 1834, at the close of the first third of the passing century. The Board of Education was established three years later. These legislative acts are the foundation of the present organization of our school system. The purpose of the fund was "the aid and encouragement of schools." The towns were stimulated to make more generous appropriations for public education, and the statistical returns of the condition and growth of the schools were secured, which enabled the Board of Education to frame intelligently and wisely the legislation that has been the inspiration and the safeguard of popular education for two thirds of a century. These acts marked the change from an unrelated mass of schools to a superior system of organization, which was brought about by the persuasive influence of the fund and the wise counsels of the Board of Education, rather than by the enforcement of any general mandatory act. The great force which the State exerted beyond certain requirements as to maintenance, and attendance upon the schools, was mainly in the form of aid and advice. A glance at the history of the fund and the varying methods of the distribution of its income will show that it was intended to supplement but in no wise to supplant the efforts of the local committees to maintain their schools. The fund was to consist of the money in the treasury derived from the sale of lands in the State of Maine, and from the claims of the State upon the United States for military services, together with half of all money thereafter to be received from the sale of Maine lands, and the principal was not to exceed $1,000,000. Subsequent enactments of the Legislature placed in the fund $75,000 of the money received by the State under the provisions of the Treaty of Washington, and transferred in 1854 a sufficient number of shares of the Western Railroad Corporation to increase the principal of the fund to $1,500,000. In 1859 it was provided that one half of the proceeds of the sales of the Back Bay lands in Boston should be added to the principal of the fund; but five years later, under the stress of the Civil War, this source of income was diverted to the bounty loan sinking fund, after the principal of the school fund should have reached $2,000,000. When the State in 1882 sold the Boston and Albany stock, which formed part of the investment, the fund was increased some $700,000 by the premiums received; and in 1890 a similar amount was placed in the fund by the refunding of the United States direct tax. In 1894 the principal of the fund was fixed at $5,000,000, $100,000 to be paid into it annually from the treasury until that sum is reached. The principal at the present time amounts to $4,370,548. DISTRIBUTION OF THE INCOME The history of the application of the income of the fund shows that from the beginning it has been used to stimulate the towns to greater exertion for educational purposes, and that aid has been withdrawn when the growth and increasing wealth of the municipalities rendered assistance no longer necessary. The first apportionment of the income was made by the Legislature in 1835, two years before the State Board of Education was |