1. That every town having fifty householders should at once appoint a
teacher of reading and writing, and provide for his wages in such
manner as the town might determine; and
2. That every town having one hundred householders must provide a
grammar school to fit youths for the university, under a penalty of
£5 (afterwards increased to £20) for failure to do so.
This law represents a distinct step in advance over the Law of 1642, and for this there are no English precedents. It was not until the latter part of the nineteenth century that England took such a step. The precedents for the compulsory establishment of schools lie rather in the practices of the different German States (p. 318), the actions of the Dutch synods (R. 176) and provinces (p. 335), the Acts of the Scottish parliament of 1633 and 1646 (p. 334; R. 179), and the general Calvinistic principle that education was an important function of a religious State.
PRINCIPLES ESTABLISHED. The State here, acting again as the servant of the Church, enacted a law and fixed a tradition which prevailed and grew in strength and effectiveness after State and Church had parted company. Not only was a school system ordered established—elementary for all towns and children, and secondary for youths in the larger towns—but, for the first time among English-speaking people, there was an assertion of the right of the State to require communities to establish and maintain schools, under penalty if they refused to do so. It can be safely asserted, in the light of later developments, that the two laws of 1642 and 1647 represent the foundations upon which our American state public-school systems have been built. Mr. Martin, the historian of the Massachusetts public-school system, states the fundamental principles which underlay this legislation, as follows: [9]
1. The universal education of youth is essential to the well-being of
the State.
2. The obligation to furnish this education rests primarily upon the
parent.
3. The State has a right to enforce this obligation.
4. The State may fix a standard which shall determine the kind of education, and the minimum amount.
5. Public money, raised by general tax, may be used to provide such
education as the State requires. The tax may be general, though the
school attendance is not.
6. Education higher than the rudiments may be supplied by the State.
Opportunity must be provided, at public expense, for youths who
wish to be fitted for the university.