Book Description

Excerpt from A History of Public Permanent Common School Funds in the United States, 1795-1905 The existence to-day of public schools in most of our states may be said to be due directly, though of course by no means solely, to vast endowment funds provided by previous generations. In view of the part these funds have played in nearly every state, it is surprising that they have received so little attention from historians. The two most widely known histories of education in the United States, Boone's and Dexter's, give almost no information regarding them. Boone limits his discussion to about seven pages and Dexter, his to two pages. State histories of education are equally disappointing to one seeking information upon this topic. Wickersham's History of Education in Pennsylvania, one of the largest and most comprehensive of state histories of education, contains no organized statement regarding the common school fund of Pennsylvania established in 1831. References to the fund are made here and there, but more space is given to describing the domestic surroundings of various prominent schoolmen than is given to this fund. It is not included in the index, a fact which further emphasizes the small place it occupies in the work. No doubt one of the causes for the silence of the historians is the difficulty of securing reliable information respecting the public permanent common school funds. This difficulty is discussed somewhat fully in Chapter One. The present volume is the first attempt to give a comprehensive account of these funds and their influence. Part One, designed for the general reader, is devoted to a broad survey of the origin, management, loss, and effects of the public permanent common school funds. Part Two is designed primarily for reference. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.