Excerpt from Twenty-Ninth Annual Report of the Board of Education, 1866: Together With the Twenty-Ninth Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board
The establishment of this fund, thirty-one years ago, has been justly regarded as one of the most important educational meas ures ever adopted by the government of the Commonwealth. That it has been one of the most powerful instrumentalities in reforming and elevating the character of our schools there can be no question. It has been the means of securing from all the cities and towns the accurate and complete returns and reports, the great utility of which has already been noticed. It has been the means of securing obedience to important legislative require ments for the benefit of education, especially those respecting the length of schools, and the amount per scholar, to be raised by taxes; and while it has not been a substitute for local taxation, it has operated as a powerful agent in increasing it. And besides, it has afforded the means of defraying the expenses of all the institutions and agencies immediately under the supervision Of the Board, and intended for the general benefit of the State.
By the Act establishing the fund it was limited to one million dollars. In 1851, the maximum was raised to one million five hundred thousand dollars. Again, in 1854, when the fund was re-organized, the maximum was carried up to two millions. In the twenty-second Annual Report of the Secretary of the Board, the expediency of extending itrto three millions was earnestly advocated, and accordingly, in 1859, ample provision was made for its increase out of the proceeds of the sales of the Back Bay lands. One year ago, however, when it seemed probable that the fund Would speedily grow to the proposed amount, the Legislature saw fit to make other disposition of the means which had been set apart and pledged for this most desirable object. The Board cannot but deeply regret that this action should have been deemed necessary for the public interest but as it was taken to meet the exigencies of the war,-which was then severely taxing the resources of the people, it is hoped that the auspicious return of peace and pros perity will be followed by the adoption of measures for redeeming the pledge given in the Act of 1859, that the school fund should be raised to a much higher amount than it has yet reached.
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