Chapter 20
pages
92 - 99
THE PRESENT SCHOOL SYSTEM, COMMONLY CALLED FREE SCHOOLS.
Various school-laws were passed by the legislature,
from time to time; but the first one worthy of note, in this connection, is one
passed on the sixteenth of February, 1857, which may be found on page 259 of the
statutes of that year, and on page 444 of the collection of Scates et al. This
had previously been the law. It was enacted and reenacted from 1841 to 1847. It
is a long statute, with many and ample provisions. By section 42, it is provided
that the legal voters shall elect "three persons within the district, to be
styled school directors", who are to hold office for a year. Section 43 is in
these words: " For the purpose of erecting school-houses, or for the purpose of
purchasing school-house sites, or for the purpose of repairing and improving the
same, for procuring furniture, fuel and district libraries, and for the purpose
of paying the balance due teachers, after the state and township funds are
exhausted, the board of directors of any district shall be authorized to have
levied and collected a tax annually, on all the property in their district."
This law gave them power, without limit, to levy tax to
any amount they might please, subject, however, to a vote of the people, which
people were the same to whom they owed their election, a large majority of whom
paid little or no taxes. Under this law large amounts of money were collected,
and several school-houses partly built, and one would have thought that even
'democracy ran mad' would have been satisfied with it; but such was not the
fact.
The besetting sin of American society is a mania for
office. Men will abandon a business worth two thousand dollars a year for an
office worth one thousand, and they are ready to ruin the public interests, for
the honor of ruling the public. They array the poor against the rich, and assume
the honor of leading the former, because they are most numerous. This class of
men are constantly endeavoring to get into some small office, as a stepping
stone to a higher one; and they educate those who have nothing to believe that
the way to get the property of the rich is to break them down by taxation; and,
to get the votes of such, they promise to assess a new tax, or increase the old
ones.
This baleful disposition caused a law to be passed, on
the 14th of February, 1845, which provided for the election of seven inspectors
of schools, to be denominated 'The Board of School Inspectors'. The name of this
corporation seems incongruous. School trustees, school directors, school
superintendents, or school commissioners, would seem more appropriate; but the
fact is, so many laws had been passed on the subject that all appropriate terms
had been exhausted, leaving the getters-up of our present school-law no
alternative but to call themselves 'inspectors'.
This act gives this board omnipotent power, on the
Subject of renting or building school-houses, hiring teachers and determining
their salaries, and levying taxes for these purposes, except that the eighth
section requires that, after the amount of taxes has been determined by them,
the question of levying shall be submitted to the people, at the next election,
and if a majority vote for it, it becomes peremptory on the board of aldermen to
levy and collect the tax, and hand it over to the treasurer appointed by the
board. This clause, however, in practice, has amounted to nothing, for the
majority, getting the benefit of the tax without paying any of it, would vote
for a million dollars, were that the sum proposed, in stead of and in preference
to any smaller sum.
On the 27th of January, 1857, this law was so amended
as to require nine in stead of seven inspectors to form the board, and it
provided "That the persons so elected, and their successors in office, are
hereby constituted a body corporate and politic, by the name and style of the
'Board of School Inspectors of the City of Peoria'; that they shall have
perpetual succession, and by said name shall have power to sue and be sued,
plead and be impleaded, in all courts and places where judicial proceedings are
had."
This law also provided for the issuing of $50,000 of
city bonds, to be put into the hands of the school inspectors, to aid in
building school-houses.
On the 20th of February, 1869, an act was passed
entitled "An act to reduce the Charter of Peoria, and the several acts
amendatory thereof, into one act, and revise the same." Said two school-laws,
with but little variation, are incorporated into said charter, and, as thus
reenacted, are now the law on the subject.
The second section of this law provides that "The said
board of school inspectors shall consist of the mayor of the City of Peoria, and
two members from each ward (the election districts in the township of Peoria to
be deemed, for school purposes, portions of the wards at which the voting for
said districts is now or may hereafter be clone), who shall be residents of
their respective wards, and who shall hold their offices, respectively, for two
years, or until the election and qualification of their successors." From this I
understand that, as we have seven wards in our city, and the board of aldermen
may make as many as they please, the number of school inspectors is increased to
fifteen, and may be much larger, should the number of wards be increased.
The most noticeable point wherein the law, as thus
incorporated into the city charter, differs from the law of 1855, is this: By
the law of 1855, the board of aldermen were only bound to levy the tax after it
had been voted by the people; whereas, by the charter, the board of inspectors
is supreme. It is only necessary for them to demand the money, and the board of
aldermen (their humble servants) are compellable to levy the tax, collect it,
and hand it over.
By this last charter, besides giving all the
school-funds to the school inspectors, to the exclusion of all other schools,
and an unlimited power of taxing the people in any sum not exceeding six mills
in the dollar's worth, which is withheld from all other schools, the city
council is authorized to issue and put into their hands any amount of city
bonds, not exceeding in the whole 125,000.
Effectually to break down all independent schools, the
following section is contained in both of said laws: "No school in said city, or
the teacher or pupils thereof, shall receive any part of any school-fund
belonging to the state, or any money raised by taxation, that is not a public
school, as provided by this act, and established and maintained under the
authority and direction of the board of inspectors." But, as above stated, this
effect was not entirely produced.
To understand the importance of the above clause, it
should be stated that taxation, the greatest source of school-funds now, was not
formerly resorted to at all. We then had, and still have, other sources of
revenue obtained in this wise: "When it was proposed to give the Illinois
Territory the position of a state, the general government required several
concessions of the future state, and, as an inducement to those concessions,
Congress proposed to concede —
"That five per cent, of the net proceeds of the lands
lying within such state, and which should be sold by Congress from and after the
first day of January, 1819, after deducting all expenses incident to the same,
shall be reserved for the purposes following, viz: two fifths to be disbursed,
under the direction of Congress, in making roads leading to the state, the
residue to be appropriated, by the legislature of the state, for the
encouragement of learning, of which one-sixth part shall be exclusively for a
college or university."
"That thirty-six sections, or one entire township,
shall be designated by the President of the United States, together with the one
heretofore reserved, for the use of a seminary of learning, and vested in the
legislature of the said state, to be appropriated solely to the use of such
seminary, by the said legislature."
The schedule containing the above propositions was
passed in Congress on the 18th day of April, 1818, and accepted by the State of
Illinois on the 25th of August, 1818. A large amount of funds went into the
state treasury, by virtue of this compact, which were squandered. Afterward,
when the national treasury was overflowing, and a reduction of the tariff was
opposed to the policy of the majority, the surplus revenue was divided among the
several states, and Illinois, after fooling away her part, voted to add it to
the school-fund, and pay interest on the whole for the benefit of schools. To
all of which should be added the proceeds of the sixteenth section.
On the 16th of February, 1857, the legislature, that
had always been too poor or unpatriotic to restore the college and seminary
funds, passed a law levying a tax of two mills on all taxable property, for the
use of schools.
From these sources of revenue are produced the
school-fund, the interest on which is annually divided among the counties, in
proportion to the children that might be educated, and then, in the counties, it
is divided among all the schools, according to the actual number of scholars
sent to school, and the actual time they are kept at it. It was in these funds
that said laws prohibited the schools in Peoria from participating, unless they
would submit themselves to the said school inspectors.
Under these laws schools have been established in the
City of Peoria very extensively. No less than nine school-houses have been
built, and all but three of them are very expensive brick buildings. Three of
them are wooden buildings, and one of the three is exclusively for colored
children. In these the Superintendent computes that he is educating 2,600
pupils. To teach these students, fifty-five tutors are employed—six males and
forty-nine females—at salaries, to the males, of $1,200, except the principal,
who gets $1,900, and to the females, from $375 to $900.
What effect the Catholic movement, detailed in Chapter
XIX, will have on these schools is yet to be proved; the Catholics are so
numerous that, should they withdraw all their children, it must thin out the
schools considerably.
Appended to these is an institution called the Normal
School, which is in its infancy. This school is supported by the County of
Peoria and the City of Peoria—the county paying three-fourths of the expenses.
There are, as yet, but two teachers—Mr. White, at a salary of $2,500; and Miss
Hannay, at a salary of $750—and forty scholars.
These are very showy schools, and many of our citizens
are proud of them; but this feeling is far from being universal. A considerable
number (although these schools are free to them) prefer to send their children
away, to where board and tuition are very costly.
The Board of School Inspectors at present (1870)
consists of
William F. Bryan, Esq.,
Chauncey Nye, Esq.,
Charles Feinse, Esq.,
Mr. Alexander G. Tyng,
Mr. Charles Raymond,
Mr. B. L. T. Bourland,
Hon. Gardiner T. Barker,
Mr. A. F. Lincoln,
Mr. Benjamin Foster,
Mr. George H. Mclvaine,
Mr. Eldrick Smith, jr.,
Mr. Eugene B. Pierce,
Mr. John Wichmann,
E. S. Willcox, Esq.,
Mr. K C. Nason,
Mr. J. E. Dow is Superintendent.
Mr. John Hamlin is Treasurer.
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Updated March 23, 2005