FREE SCHOOLS ESTABLISHED IN 1849. 245 



pressed upon the New York Legislature the advantage 

 of a system of common schools, free to all. By such a 

 system the trustees would be relieved from the disagree 

 able duty of pronouncing who were poor, and parents 

 from the equally disagreeable one of paying special rates 

 for the education of their children. 



By a law passed in 1849, therefore, the common schools 

 of the State were all declared free. They were ordered 

 to be kept open at least eight months in the year the 

 average period of all the schools taken together for several 

 years past and each district was to levy, by tax upon 

 itself, twice as much as it received from the State fund. 

 As the law imposed a new tax, it was submitted to the 

 whole people, and was passed by fifty-five counties against 

 four, and by a clear majority of 157,000 votes. It went, 

 therefore, into immediate operation ; but when the tax 

 came to be imposed, it awoke so much opposition that, 

 before a year was over, petitions and remonstrances were 

 presented to the Legislature and School Board from not 

 less than 2000 of the school districts. 



The selfish who had no children, who had few, or 

 whose children had already left school, are of course 

 among the complainants. But to the thinner peopled and 

 newer districts the law was really a grievance. To keep 

 the school open for eight months, when perhaps two 

 months had been the period before, caused a sudden 

 increase of taxation far beyond the mere double of the 

 State allowance required by law. What the State gave, 

 when there were few children between five and sixteen 

 was also very small, so that there was no visible com 

 pensating advantage for the heavy taxation in these 

 districts. To remedy these evils, it has been proposed 

 to levy a general county rate double of the State allow 

 ance to the county, which together shall make up the 

 whole legal county education fund, and then to divide 

 the whole among all the districts in proportion to the 



