iment_; and that they should never be so large as to render
any considerable degree of personal effort on the part of the parent
unnecessary." This is true only when a fund is so far relied upon as to
slacken personal effort for the improvement of the schools, and to
induce parental and popular indifference in relation to them.

The second plan is by taxation, and Massachusetts furnishes an example
of it. In most of the counties of this state there are small local
funds, the avails of which are added to the amount raised by tax for the
support of schools. There are also still less amounts appropriated from
the income of the surplus revenue for the purpose of increasing the
educational advantages of the children; not to be subtracted from, but
to be added to, what the towns would otherwise grant. We may, then,
consider the school fund of this state as embracing the entire taxable
property of the state, from which such a sum is annually raised by tax
as is necessary for the support of the schools. In Vermont, New
Hampshire, and Maine, the schools are supported essentially as in
Massachusetts, the difference being chiefly in the mode of taxation.

Dr. Wayland, in a letter written some years ago, makes the following
remark in relation to the support of schools: "The best legislative
provision with which I am acquainted is that of Maine. They have no fund
whatever, but oblige every district to raise for education a sum
proportioned to the number of its inhabitants or its property. If a town
or a district neglects to do this, it is liable to a fine."

In those states whose systems of public instruction are best
administered--which have the best schools, and the greatest proportion
of the population in attendance upon them--the schools are generally
supported almost entirely by a direct tax, the great principle that THE
PROPERTY OF THE STATE SHOULD EDUCATE THE CHILDREN OF THE STATE being
practically recognized. It not only appears, then, that large funds are
not required for the successful administration of systems of public
instruction, but that actually the best schools, and those which are
doing most for the correct education of the rising generation, may be
found in those states that are destitute of funds, and whose public
schools are supported by a direct tax upon the property of the state.

The third plan of supporting schools is a combination of both of the
others. New York until within the last year,[67] Rhode Islan