Representatives, in a Report made by Hon
As early as 1828, the Committee on Education of the House of
Representatives, in a Report made by Hon. W. B. Calhoun, declared, 'That
means should be devised for the establishment of a fund having in view
not the _support_, but the _encouragement_, of the common schools, and
the instruction of school teachers.' This report was made in the month
of January, and in February following the same committee say: 'The
establishment of a fund should look to the support of an institution for
the instruction of school teachers in each county in the commonwealth,
and to the distribution, annually, to all the towns, of such a sum for
the benefit of the schools as shall simply operate as an encouragement
to proportionate efforts on the part of the towns. A fund which should
be so large as to suffice for the support of the whole school
establishment of the state, as is the case in Connecticut, would, in the
opinion of the committee, be rather detrimental than advantageous; it
would only serve to draw off from the mass of the community that
animating interest which will ever be found indispensable where a
resolute feeling upon the subject is wished for or expected. Such a
result is, in every sense, to be deprecated, and whatever may tend to
it, even remotely, should be anxiously avoided. A fund which should
admit of the distribution of one thousand dollars to any town which
should raise three thousand dollars, in any manner within itself, or in
that proportion, would operate as a strong incentive to high efforts;
and, if to this should be added the further requisition of a faithful
return to the Legislature, annually, of the condition of the schools,
the consequences could not be otherwise than decidedly favorable.' This
report was accompanied by a bill 'for the establishment of the
Massachusetts Literary Fund.' The bill followed the report in regard to
the proportionate amount of the income of the fund to be distributed to
the several towns. This bill failed to become a law.
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