Chapter IV.

THE FIRST STATE TAXATION FOR PUBLIC SCHOOLS, 1861-1875.

The original idea in Judge Hall's bill, which became the school law of 1829, was individual and neighborhood cooperation. It was absolutely and entirely voluntary; there was no supervision by State or county; there was no legal requirement, no compulsion by the State, for the proposal to levy a tax which appeared in the original draft of the bill was omitted in the enacted law. The schools to be established were denominated "free schools," but it was a curious. freedom, for "free" meant that their patrons and supporters were free to support them well or ill, or not support them at all, as most appealed to their desires and interests. But this phase of the movement broke down the first year. It was soon seen that voluntary contributions could not be depended on to support the schools if they were to exist at all, and as early as 1830 a State law was passed permitting the school districts to vote a local tax on themselves if they saw fit. This remained the law until 1861 and was a step in advance, but it had fatal objections: The local school district was the unit of taxation; the tax when voted was purely local; it applied only to the local school district and was to be voted each year. The result of this unfortunate provision has been narrated already. There began at once to grow up two parties who differed radically on the administration of schools. The conservatives advocated the status quo. They wanted no change, little or no State interference, and as much liberty of individual action and school district initiative as possible. On the other hand the more aggressive party, whom we may call, by way of contrast, the progressives, wanted a stronger central control for the purpose of supervision and direction in the matter of taxation. Between the two ideals the sentiment of the State swung back and forth for a generation, but during most of this time, despite the activity of the conservatives, and in spite of their much writing on the subject, public sentiment more or less steadily approached the idea of a centralized State control. After much agitation the beginnings of such a State law were finally attained in 1861. This was the first general State law on the subject of taxation for public-school education ever passed in the State.

I. EDUCATIONAL LEGISLATION, 1861-1875.

This act, passed March 1, 1861, provides that it should be the duty of the school committee in each school district in the month of April of each year to assess and levy in each school district in New Castle County the sum of $75; in each school district in Kent County, $50; and in Sussex County, $30, "to be applied to the support of the school of their district, to be assessed, levied, and collected as provided in chapter 42 of the Revised Statutes." Any school district might levy any additional sum up to $400 after the exact amount had been fixed by a majority vote. A majority of the voters in the district might also levy a sum not to exceed $500 for the purpose of building a schoolhouse, and all sums decided on by majority vote were to be levied and collected in the same manner as the minimum sums required by the act."

The act of 1861 marks the downfall of one tendency in public education in Delaware and the completed evolution of its opposite. The act of 1829 required that as much money be raised in the district as was due to the district from the school fund. The act of 1830 cut this requirement in half, and the act of 1837 reduced it to $25. This tendency of the voter to reduce the requirements on himself to the lowest limits was met by another movement which sought to provide for the schools by State action. The logical result of this tendency was the act of 1861 which to that extent eliminated the wishes of the individual voter altogether and made school support automatic. Of the law of 1861 Supt. Groves remarks:

This act of 1861 was a long and grand step in the cause of education in the State. By its provisions no child was to be deprived of an opportunity of attending school or of securing a common-school education, throwing the responsibility entirely upon the parent for any neglect. The State fully measured up to her power and responsibility by her action in providing for the education of her subjects. That this avenue should not be closed, wherein the future citizen and voter might allege that an education was impossible, she plainly indicated by her provisions. Further, she declared that it were better to build schoolhouses, employ teachers, and maintain schools than enlarge the almshouses and prisons; that the amount of illiteracy should be smaller, and that fraud in the ballot, with covered head, should take its place behind the intelligent voter. Before this date it was indeed a critical period annually on the first Saturday in April for the youth of the State. Fathers, anxious and considerate for the welfare of their children, with nervous tread and painful forebodings, wended their way yearly to the school meeting. The State herself was in suspense and awe, awaiting the result of the actions of her subjects. The weal or woe of society hung trembling in the balance, to be decided by the day's action.

1 This was the Revised Code of 1852, then in use.

2 Laws of Delaware, 1861, ch. 70. Several other laws were passed at this session which were educational in character (chs. 58, 100): One provided for the building of a schoolhouse (ch. 54); one for the publication of the act of 1861; and another voted $157.32 for the liquidation of an unpaid bill for printing which still hung over the late New Castle school convention (ch. 132).

3 Groves, J. H.: History of Free Schools of Delaware, in 5th An. Rep. Supt. Free Schools, 1880, pp. 49–50.

It is perhaps best at this point to trace the subsequent legislative fortunes of the public schools down to 1875, when a new general school law marked another step forward and started the system on a career of real State-wide development. There was of course but little educational legislation during the war period and this little was local in character. After the return of peace the law of this period of most general significance was the act of 1867 which chartered, as a private institution, the Delaware State Normal University, whose creation will be noticed later. With this exception practically all the educational legislation between 1861 and 1875 was essentially local in character. In this predominantly local legislation, however, there can be traced certain tendencies which were now making themselves felt as never before. These included the further organization of town and city systems and the grant of authority to these to borrow money on the public credit either with or without mortgage security on property already owned by the school. This tendency was not confined to the larger cities, but seems to have permeated the whole educational system. The stronger and more ambitious school districts were given more freedom of initiative in one of two ways. If so disposed they were permitted to exceed the $400 limit set by the act of 1861 in the matter of local voluntary taxation. The first of these acts seemed to have been that of February 13, 1867 (ch. 141), which allowed School District No. 78, in New Castle County, to raise $800; in some cases the amount thus raised by taxation was as much as $1,500. Such acts were euphemistically called acts for relief and they appeared from year to year. When taxation was not available or insufficient these smaller districts might also borrow with or without mortgage."

When the action of the legislature on similar questions presented by the Wilmington schools in the fifties is recalled, the stride toward modern methods is seen to have been tremendous.

Another development of this period was that which took the more or less disjointed, fragmentary, and independent school districts that centered in and about the towns and villages, apparently including in some cases the older institutions of private origin and reorganized them as a single public-school system. This new system sometimes continued to bear the ante bellum name of academy, but more often distinctly proclaimed itself as the public-school system. The consolidated school was thus incorporated and given authority to collect sufficient taxes for the pay of teachers and for schoolhouses. In this way the town and city schools of the State began to make progress.

* See Wilmington under acts of 1863, 1869, 1871, and 1873.

Ch. 395, laws of 1873.

* See chs. 427 and 428, laws of 1869; chs. 44, 45, 47, and 51, laws of 1871; chs. 396, 400, 401, 403, 404, and 406, laws of 1873; ch. 44, laws of 1875.

* See ch. 140, laws of 1867; chs. 429 and 430, laws of 1869; ch. 402, laws of 1873.

New Castle seems to have been the first of the smaller cities to inaugurate this scheme of development. In this way the Dover Academy was reorganized in 1867 (ch. 180) and Milton Academy in 1869 (ch. 484). These institutions were often both primary and secondary schools, and in some cases at least, as was the case with the Dover public schools, under the act of March 9, 1875 (ch. 42), it was still possible to provide for a deficit by a rate bill levied on parent or guardian and collected as other taxes. Following these precedents, in 1875 (chs. 52 and 53) the school districts in Delaware City and Lewes were consolidated into town systems. Neither of these laws, however, was a good one, for Delaware City within certain limits went back to the old principle of letting the voters decide what the tax should be and both provided for school rates, but the weakness of these acts is perhaps atoned for by the better law given to New Castle the same year (ch. 54). This town received a charter for 20 years for its board of education, which was put in full charge of the schools and authorized to fix, up to $4,000, the amount to be raised for education, and there were to be no school rates.

The legislature continued the business of creating new districts," and homes and farms were regularly transferred by legislative enactment from one district to another. Thus it would appear that in this State centralization worked by contraries. A State-wide law for a general school tax was secured only after a struggle of a generation, but the organization of a new district in any county or the transfer of John Doe from district A to district B for the sake of greater personal convenience was a matter of such grave concern that it commanded the attention of the whole State.

In these ways did the public educational sentiment of Delaware begin to again find the voice which had been stilled by war, although there was as yet no central authority to whom reports might be made and whose duty it was to preserve and publish such reports. An effort to secure such was made in 1867 when a bill entitled "An act to provide for the appointment of a State school superintendent and a board of school examiners for this State" was introduced into the house on March 6. It passed the house, but failed in the senate.3

Notwithstanding this failure in legislation, the friends of education were not cast down. An educational mass meeting was called to be held in Dover on December 23, 1867, its purpose being "for a mutual interchange of opinions; to receive and discuss suggestions of improvements in the law." The meeting was in session two days,

1 See chs. 423, 424, 425, laws of 1869; chs. 50, 52, laws of 1871; ch. 398, laws of 1873; ch. 45, laws of 1875, and later.

* See chs. 53, 181, laws of 1871; ch. 399, laws of 1873; chs. 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, laws of 1875, and later. * H. J., 1867, pp. 433, 456, 505; S. J., 1867, p. 389.

and its "proceedings were conducted with signal unanimity, harmony, and good feeling." A preliminary meeting had been held on November 9, 1867, and the call for a State-wide meeting had been issued by Kent County. The meeting in December called itself a State educational convention; many ladies and gentlemen were present, mainly from Kent and New Castle Counties, with a few from Sussex. The speakers included T. Clarkson Taylor, of Wilmington, and J. P. Wickersham, of Pennsylvania. No report on Mr. Wickersham's address has been seen, but the Wilmington Daily Commercial for December 31, 1867, contains a summary of that of Mr. Taylor. The larger part of this address is a plea for more education in general and for a better system in Delaware in particular. The defects of the existing law were considered. These included the method of raising school funds over and above the taxes provided by law, for the district was still allowed to vote annually on the supplementary amounts to be raised. The results of this provision were unfortunate, because progressive districts went forward and indifferent ones did not. There was no general school head, and therefore no unity of school action; there was no standard of qualification of teachers, and the general law was entirely inadequate. He suggested that each district be required to levy enough tax to keep the schools open for at least four months (some demanded eight months) before any appropriations might be made to them from the school fund. These taxes should be levied, collected, and disbursed by school commissioners in each hundred and town district, who were to be substituted for the commissioners of each school district and were to have also general care of the schools. Mr. Taylor asked that a State superintendent be appointed; that county superintendents examine teachers and schools, hold institutes, etc., and that there should be provision by law for good school buildings, grounds, furniture, and apparatus.1 Uniformity of textbooks was also urged by the convention, but the question of school libraries was laid on the table.

At least two results came from this meeting. It served as a sort of school institute for the teachers of Kent, who later effected a formal organization and agreed to meet again at Smyrna in April; in accord with the general sense of the convention a committee was appointed to draft a general school code, expressive of the changes desired in the existing school system. The committee reported to another meeting held July 13, 1868, changes and additions to the school law 2 then in force. These alterations were embodied in what was called "The new school law." This was presented to the general assembly

1 Wilmington (Del.) Daily Commercial, Dec. 24, 31, 1867.

The Commercial reports that the attendance on this meeting was small and that another was called to meet in December. See issue for July 15, 1868.