Opinion ID: 2078305
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: Origins of New York Public Schools

Text: Initially, the struggle centered on persuading the Legislature to establish common schools. Although a form of public education was prevalent when the Dutch West India Company controlled New Amsterdam, the southern tip of Manhattan, public schools were not a priority of the British authorities who assumed dominion in 1664 (3 Lincoln, The Constitutional History of New York, at 476-487 [1905]). The General Assembly enacted two laws relating to public schools. In 1702 an act was passed for the encouragement of a grammar free school in the city of New York, which was not renewed when it expired in 1707. (Finegan, A Documentary History of the Free School Movement in New York State, at 22 [1921].) In 1732, another law was enacted to encourage a public school in the city of New York for teaching Latin, Greek and Mathematics. ( Id. ) Only a few students were able to attend the school. ( Id. ) According to one writer, the one bright spot in the intellectual gloom of the century of English domination was the founding of King's College, now Columbia University, in 1754 (Department of Public Instruction, The Schools of New York. A Glance at the Common School System of the Empire State, at 20 [1893] [hereinafter Schools of New York]). Notably, the British issued the royal charter that founded the college based on the urging of the Governor that such an institution was necessary to prevent the growth of republican principles which already too much prevail in the colonies ( id. at 21). On the contrary, Columbia educated such men as Alexander Hamilton, Robert Livingston, John Jay, DeWitt Clinton, and Gouverneur Morris. After the Revolution in 1776, the early public schools were too impoverished to offer anything more than a crude education to the poor children of the state. The State neither funded nor regulated public schools. In the cities, the schools where located in areas where the best families would not be disturbed by the sight of the uncouth garb and uncultivated noise of free-school children ( id. at 23). In dilapidated schools, the children were taught only spelling, reading, writing and common arithmetic with the barest of instrumentalities by teachers who possessed little education ( id. at 26). The children of the wealthy, on the other hand, learned comfortably and well in private academies and nurseries. The first Constitution of 1777 omitted any mention of education. Lincoln blames the omission on the hasty actions of a marginal number of the total delegates at Kingston who adopted the Constitution despite the absence of several prominent members, and declined to consider additional topics that many thought should have been included (3 Lincoln, at 487). A letter from John Jay, one of the absentees, to Gouverneur Morris and Mr. Livingston, stated that he would have been in favor of a clause for the support and encouragement of literature ( id. at 488). In 1784, the Legislature enacted a law incorporating the Regents of the University of the State of New York as the board of trustees of Columbia, to organize other institutions of higher education, and to charter private academies, then the term for high schools ( see, LaValle v Hayden, 98 NY2d 155, 158-159 [2002]). The Regents soon realized that the benefits of an education should be available to the masses. In a 1793 annual report, they stated: On this occasion we cannot help suggesting to the legislature the numerous advantages which we conceive would accrue to the citizens in general from the institution of schools in various parts of the state for the purpose of instructing our children in the lower branches of education; such as reading their native language with propriety, and so much of writing and arithmetic as to enable them, when they come forward in active life, to transact with accuracy and despatch the business arising from their daily intercourse with each other (3 Lincoln, at 502-503). Two years later, Governor George Clinton embraced the goal of public schooling and made it his foremost ambition. Recognizing that the [n]eglect of the education of youth is one of the evils consequent upon war, Governor Clinton made the following speech when the Legislature of 1795 convened for the first time after the adoption of the Constitution: While it is evident that the general establishment and liberal endowment of academies are to be highly commended, and are attended with the most beneficial consequences, yet it can not be denied that they are principally confined to the children of the opulent, and that a great portion of the community is excluded from their immediate advantages. The establishment of common schools throughout the State is happily calculated to remedy this inconvenience, and will, therefore, engage your early and decided consideration (Schools of New York, at 28). That same year, the Legislature enacted a law (L 1795, ch 75) appropriating $50,000 annually for five years for the purpose of encouraging and maintaining schools in the several cities and towns in this state, in which the children of the inhabitants residing in the state, shall be instructed in the English language, or be taught English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics, and such other branches of knowledge as are most useful and necessary to complete a good English education (quoted in Randall, The Common School System of the State of New York, at 6 [1851] [prepared in pursuance of an act of the Legislature]; 3 Lincoln, at 526-527). Initially, the sum appropriated was distributed to the several counties according to representation in the Legislature, and later according to their representation in the Assembly. In the towns, the share received hinged on the number of taxable inhabitants. In addition, each town was required to raise one half of the amount it received from the State. The electors of each town and county were responsible for procuring good and sufficient schoolmasters, and for the erecting and maintaining schools (quoted in Randall, at 6). The electors appointed trustees responsible for running the schools, and commissioners responsible for running the school districts. The commissioners would distribute the public money allocated by the State according to the number of days of instruction. In 1800, the law expired and was not renewed despite Governor John Jay's supplications. During the next 11 years, the Legislature failed to respond to the supplications of Governor Clinton and then Governor Morgan Lewis. The Legislature did enact several laws establishing funds to be used for the support of common schools. In 1812, the Legislature enacted, with minor modifications, a bill submitted by a commission it established to report on a system for the establishment of common schools ( see Judd v Board of Educ., 278 NY 200, 205-206 [1938]). The members were appointed by Governor Tompkins who had continued his predecessors' exhortations in support for common schools (3 Lincoln, at 507-508; Randall, at 8-9). In their report the commissioners concluded as follows: Perhaps there never will be presented to the legislature a subject of more importance than the establishment of common schools. Education, as the means of improving the moral and intellectual faculties, is, under all circumstances, a subject of the most imposing consideration.    [I]n a government like ours, where the people is the sovereign power; where the will of the people is the law of the land; which is openly and directly expressed; and where every act of the government may justly be called the act of the people; it is absolutely essential that that people be enlightened. They must possess both intelligence and virtue: intelligence to perceive what is right, and virtue to do what is right. Our republic, therefore, may justly be said to be founded on the intelligence and virtue of the people.    As the people must receive the advantages of education, the inquiry naturally arises, how this end is to be attained. The expedient devised by the legislature, is the establishment of common schools; which being spread throughout the state and aided by its bounty, will bring improvement within the reach and power of the humblest citizen.    In these schools should be taught, at least, those branches of education which are indispensably necessary to every person in his intercourse with the world, and to the performance of his duty as a useful citizen. Reading, writing, arithmetic, and the principles of morality, are essential to every person, however humble his situation in life.    A person provided with these acquisitions, is enabled to pass through the world respectably and successfully (Randall, at 9-11). The Common School Act of 1812 (L 1812, ch 242) created a State Superintendent of Common Schools, appointed by the Council of Appointment. The Act continued the framework of its predecessor: towns were divided into school districts and citizens qualified to vote elected trustees and commissioners. State funds were distributed to towns according to population. Within the towns, funds were distributed based on the number of children between the ages of 5 and 15 in each school district. Each town was required to raise an amount equal to their allocation. Teachers had to be examined and licensed by the trustees (3 Lincoln, at 508; Randall, at 11). The Act of 1812 differed in two important respects from the law of 1795. First, it provided that parents, excepting the indigent, were required to contribute to the salary of teachers whenever the state funds and local funds were insufficient (Finegan, at 36). This was known as the rate bill. Second, the Act did not apply to New York City, where the Free School Society of the City of New York ran schools that did not require any contribution. The Free School Society was founded in 1805, with DeWitt Clinton as its first president (Schools of New York, at 41). Gideon Hawley, the founder of what is now the State University of New York at Albany, served as the first Superintendent until 1821 when the office was abolished and its duties transferred to the Secretary of State who served ex officio as Superintendent of Common Schools (Randall, at 18). The year 1821 was also the year of the second Constitutional Convention, which established a perpetual fund consisting of proceeds, with certain exceptions, from the sale of state land to be used for the support of common schools ( id. at 19). Five years later, in 1826, Governor DeWitt Clinton, in his address to the Legislature, discussed the importance of qualified teachers and school visitors: The first duty of government, and the surest evidence of good government, is the encouragement of education    Our common schools embrace children from five to fifteen years old and continue to increase and prosper.    In two years the elements of instruction may be acquired, and the remaining eight years must either be spent in repetition or in idleness, unless the teachers of common schools are competent to instruct in the higher branches of knowledge. The outlines of geography, algebra, mineralogy, agricultural chemistry, mechanical philosophy, surveying, geometry, astronomy, political economy and ethics, might be communicated in that period of time by able preceptors    The vocation of a teacher, in its influence on the character and destinies of the rising and all future generations, has either not been fully understood or duly estimated. It is, or ought to be, ranked among the learned professions    I therefore recommend a seminary for the education of teachers    A compliance with this recommendation will have the most benign influence on individual happiness and social prosperity. To break down the barriers which poverty has erected against the acquisition and dispensation of knowledge, is to restore the just equilibrium of society    I consider the system of our common schools as the palladium of our freedom    A visitorial authority [bestowed upon the Secretary of State] for the purpose of detecting abuses in the application of the funds, of examining into the modes and plans of instruction, and of suggesting improvements, would unquestionably be attended with the most propitious effects ( id. at 23-24). The next year, Governor Clinton reiterated his earlier message and so did the Senate's literature committee, which noted: In vain will you have established a system of instruction, in vain will you appropriate money to educate the children of the poor, if you do not provide persons competent to execute your system, and to teach the pupils collected in the schools    [T]he incompetency of the great mass of teachers is a radical defect, which impedes the whole system, frustrates the benevolent designs of the legislature, and defeats the hopes and wishes of all who feel an interest in disseminating the blessings of education    Having undertaken a system of public instruction, it is the solemn duty of the legislature to make that system as perfect as possible. ( Id. at 28-29.) By 1834, the Legislature had firmly established the policy that the Regents were responsible for supervising the instruction of common school teachers (3 Lincoln, at 515). The same year the Legislature enacted a law allowing the superintendent to appoint a county board of visitors. In 1844, the Legislature, by chapter 311 of the Laws of 1844, established a normal school at Albany to be supervised and controlled jointly by the Regents and the State Superintendent (Randall, at 55-56).