I-LITERATURE FUND. CHAPTER XL NEW YORK II-COMMON SCHOOL FUND. III-UNITED STATES DEPOSIT FUND New York possesses three state permanent common school funds known officially and respectively as follows: the Literature Fund,42 the Common School Fund,423 and the United Title. Condition, 1905 States Deposit Fund.423 The last of these funds, though technically a loan to the state by the federal Government, has long been, and rightly from a purely practical point of view, regarded as a permanent common school fund.* The condition of these three funds in the year 1905 was as follows: 424 Literature Fund, principal, $284,201.30, income, $9,987.50; Common School Fund, principal, $4,673,140.77, income, $169,889.06; United States Deposit Fund, principal, $4,014,520.71, income, $155,648.06. Total principal, $8,971,862.78; total income, $335,524.62. The state appropriates from the revenues of these funds three hundred forty-nine thousand five hundred dollars ($349,500) toward the support of schools. (Laws of N. Y., Chap. 683, enacted May 31, 19c6.) The total annual public school revenue derived from all sources amounts (1905) to $47,803, 172.33,425 of which approximately seven-tenths per cent (.007)† was contributed by permanent state funds. "The capital of these funds is kept inviolate and if there are any losses they are made good from the General Fund." 426 In the part it has played in the past in developing a system of free schools lies the importance of the New York Common School * For full explanation of this, see U. S. Surplus Revenue Fund, Part I. † Computed. 423 Laws of New York 1905, Chap. 587. 424 New York Controller's Report, 1905-06. 425 Statement received Sept. 10, 1906, from Hiram C. Case, Chief of Statistics Division, N. Y. Dept. of Education. 426 Extract from letter from Wm. C. Wilson, N. Y. State Controller, Dec. 17, 1906. Cf. this with later statement regarding loss. Fund. To-day it contributes but a small per cent of the total school revenue. It was not the first means of support of schools, in fact, seven others antedate it; namely: (1) rate bills; (2) Literature Fund, 1786; (3) local or town funds, 1789; (4) town tax, 1795; (5) annual appropriation of $100,000, 1795-1800; (6) literature lotteries, 1801-21; (7) gifts. Rate Bills Rate bills, tuition fees, were charged in New York state from time immemorial until 1867. In 1867 they were abolished whereupon the schools which had been public became free.427, 429 Town Funds, 1786 and 1789 Town funds arose from an act of legislature, 1786,428 which provided that the unappropriated land of the state should be laid out in townships of 64,000 acres.430 In every township two lots were to be reserved, the first marked "gospel and schools," the second known as the "state lot." The "gospel and school lot" was to be applied to promote the gospel and schools within the said township. An act was passed in 1789 which provided for the sale of the "gospel and school lot." 434 This Act of 1789 required the Surveyor-General to set apart two lots for gospel and school purposes in each township of public land, thereafter to be surveyed.434 The principal tracts of land thus reserved included about 47,380 acres.435 In time most of this land came to be used for the support of schools. Many of the funds thus established continue to the present. The "state lot" set aside by the Act of 1786 to be used for "promoting literature," was reserved to the state Established 1786 to be hereafter applied by the legislature for promoting literature in the state.431 The fund created by the sales Literature Fund 427 For an account of Rate Bills consult Chap. II. 428 It is frequently stated that this fund was established in 1790, e. g., N. Y. State Supt. of Public Instruction Report, 1905, p. 61. 429 Report N. Y. State Supt. of Public Instruction, 1848, p. 41 ff. 430 Laws of New York, 1786, Chap. 67. 431 For a full history of this fund see Hough, F. B., Historical and Statistical Record of the University of the State of New York, Chap. 4, p. 80. 434 Laws of New York, 1789, Chaps. 32, 44. 435 Report N. Y. State Supt. of Public Instruction, 1833, p. 61. of these state lots was the first permanent school fund created for an entire state, being nine years older than the Connecticut School Fund established 1795. Its purpose was not to aid common schools, but to promote academical departments to prepare teachers. In the year 1819, $26,690 arrears of quit rents were added to this fund, and by an Act passed April 13, 1827, $150,000 worth of securities belonging to the canal fund were transferred to it.432 The Act of 1819 directed that "one-half of all quit rents and commutations for quit-rents, received by the state, should be appropriated to increase the Literature Fund and the remaining half to the further increase of the (Common) School Fund." 433 The control of the Literature Fund rested with the regents of the state "until 1832 when it was transferred to the custody of the Comptroller." 432 By an Act passed April 27, 1829, the overseers of the poor in any town were permitted under certain conditions to appropriate poor funds for the use of common schools, the funds so appropriated to be denominated the Common School Fund of such town, and to be under the care and superintendence of the town superintendent of common schools of such town.435 a schools The legislature in 1795 enacted that £20,000 or about $100,000 be annually appropriated for "encouraging and maintaining in this state in which children shall be instructed in English language, English grammar, arithmetic, mathematics." 435b Annual Appropriation 1795-1800 This was the first appropriation by the state for common schools. Together with the creation of Town Funds it forms the beginning of efforts which were expressions of the principle that produced the Common School Fund. It was the first recognition of the principle that the state is responsible for the education of her future citizens. These appropriations expired 1800.43 435 c 432 Report N. Y. State Supt. of Public Instruction, 1905, p. 62. 433 Type-written account, six pages, received from N. Y. State Dept. of Finance, Dec. 23, 1906. 435a Laws of New York, 1829, Chap. 287. 435b Laws of New York, 1795, Chap. 75. 435 € Randall, S. S., History of the Common School System of the State of New York (ed. 1871), p. 96. A condition made necessary by the Act of 1795 for participation in the annual appropriation was that each town raise by tax a sum equal to one-half the amount of public money it received.435 Town tax, 1795 Literature 1801-1821 With the expiration of the annual appropriation, it became necessary to provide other means of aiding the schools. Resource was had to a method then much in vogue for raising money for state and philanthropic purposes, and in 1801 an Act was passed directing that $100,000 be raised by means of four successive lotteries of $25,000 each; $12,500, or one-eighth of the entire amount, to be paid to the regents for distribution as they saw fit among the academies, the remaining seven-eighths, $82,500, "to be paid into the Treasury for the encouragement of common schools as the legislature might thereafter direct." 435 e These "Literature Lotteries" did not cease until prohibited by the state constitution of 1821, which forbade all lotteries.435 The one-eighth was eventually added to the principal of the Literature Fund, the seven-eighths to that of the Common School Fund. 435 1 Common School 432 In view of the fact that seven-eighths, namely, $82,500, of the avails of the Literature Lotteries were eventually added to the capital of the Common School Fund it is someFund Established times stated that this fund originated in 1801.4 April 2, 1805 This is hardly correct as there was no provision in the Literature Lottery Act of 1801 for establishing its proceeds as a permanent fund. It was on April 2, 1805, that the legislature finally provided for the establishment of the Common School Fund by an act which provided that the net proceeds of 500,000 acres of unappropriated state lands, the first to be sold after the passing of the act, should be appropriated as a permanent fund for the support of common schools.435 The act provided that the proceeds should be invested until the income should amount to $50,000 when 435d Ibid., p. II. 435 e Laws of New York, 1801, Chap. 126. 435 Hough, F. B., Historical and Statistical Record, etc. (see foot-note 431). 435g Laws of New York, 1805, Chap. 66. that sum should be annually divided among the school districts of the state. The act reads: "An Act to Raise a Fund for the Encouragement of Common Schools. . . . "Be it enacted by the people of the State of New York represented in senate and assembly, That the net proceeds of five hundred thousand acres of the vacant and unappropriated lands of the people of this State, which shall be first sold by the surveyor general after the passing of this Act, shall be and hereby are appropriated as a permanent fund for the support of common schools. "And be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the comptroller from time to time, to loan all the monies which may come into the treasury by virtue of this Act, for a term not exceeding three years, to any person or body corporate, for literary purposes, on security to be given to the comptroller, in the name of the people of this State, by mortgage on improved lands within this State, then in the actual possession of the borrower, and of double the sum so to be borrowed, exclusive of any buildings thereon, which paid monies are to be loaned at the rate of six per centum per annum. "And be it further enacted, That it shall and may be lawful for the comptroller to loan on the terms above mentioned, the interest arising from said fund, or any part thereof, until the whole interest annually arising from the same shall amount to $50,000, after which the interest annually arising shall be distributed and applied for the support of the common schools in such manner as the legislature shall direct.” 4357 Provisions for When these lands were sold, one-fourth of the purchase money was required to be paid down and the balance was allowed to remain on interest at six per cent, the purchasers at the time of the sale executing a bond to the state for the amount remaining unpaid, payable in six annual instalments.435h The money was loaned to persons or bodies corporate for literary purposes, safely secured, until the income should reach the distribution limit. Constitutional The constitution of 1777 and the amendment of 1801 contained no provision for the support of common schools. Provisions, 1821, The first constitutional provision concerning the 1846, 1894 Common School Fund was made by the constitution of 1821, sixteen years after the fund had been created by 435h Report N. Y. State Supt. of Public Instruction, 1857, p. 18. |