The school fund
having been established, the towns were next required to furnish answers
to certain questions that were substituted for the requisition of the
statute of 1826, and any town whose committee failed to make the return
was to be deprived of its share of the income of the school fund,
whenever it should be first distributed. (Res. 1834, chap. 78.)
Those measures were in the highest degree salutary. There were 305 towns
in the state, and returns were received from 261. There was still a want
of accuracy and completeness; but from this time forth the state secured
what had never before been attained,--intelligent legislation by the
government, and intelligent cooeperation and support by the people.
In December, 1834, the Secretary of the Commonwealth prepared an
aggregate of the returns received, of which the following is a copy:
Number of towns from which returns have been received, 261
Number of school districts, 2,251
Number of male children attending school from
four to sixteen years of age, 67,499
Number of female children attending school from
four to sixteen years of age, 63,728
Number over sixteen and under twenty-one unable
to read and write, 158
Number of male instructors, 1,967
Number of female instructors, 2,388
Amount raised by tax to support schools, $810,178 87
Amount raised by contribution to support schools, 15,141 25
Average number of scholars attending academies
and private schools, 24,749
Estimated amount paid for tuition in academies and private
schools, $276,575 75
Local funds--Yes, 71
Local funds--No, 181
Thus, by the institution of the school fund, provision was made for a
system of annual returns, from which has been drawn a series of
statistical tables, that have not only exhibited the school system as a
whole and in its parts, but have also contributed essentially to its
improvement.
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