The United
States As A Nation Takes No Heed Of The Education Of Its People.
All That Is Left To The Judgment Of The Separate States.
In most
of the thirteen original States provision is made in the written
constitution for the general education of the people; but this is
not done in all.
I find that it was more frequently done in the
Northern or free-soil States than in those which admitted slavery,
as might have been expected. In the constitutions of South
Carolina and Virginia I find no allusion to the public provision
for education; but in those of North Carolina and Georgia it is
enjoined. The forty-first section of the constitution for North
Carolina enjoins that "schools shall be established by the
legislature for the convenient instruction of youth, with such
salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to
instruct at LOW PRICES" - showing that the intention here was to
assist education, and not provide it altogether gratuitously. I
think that provision for public education is enjoined in the
constitutions of all the States admitted into the Union since the
first Federal knot was tied except in that of Illinois. Vermont
was the first so admitted, in 1791; and Vermont declares that "a
competent number of schools ought to be maintained in each town for
the convenient instruction of youth." Ohio was the second, in
1802; and Ohio enjoins that "the General Assembly shall make such
provisions by taxation or otherwise as, with the income arising
from the school trust fund, will secure a thorough and efficient
system of common schools throughout the State; but no religions or
other sect or sects shall ever have any exclusive right or control
of any part of the school funds of this State." In Indiana,
admitted in 1816, it is required that "the General Assembly shall
provide by law for a general and uniform system of common schools."
Illinois was admitted next, in 1818; but the constitution of
Illinois is silent on the subject of education.
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