The Development of the Free Public High School in Illinois to 1860

-public institution. Most of the eastern, southern and middle states recognized its public function by assisting in its foundation and support. Public lands, as in Georgia, by the act of 1783, was one of the bases of endowment, while New York, in 1813, established a literary fund the income from which was distributed to the academies. Illinois, likewise, recognized the public function of the academies by giving legislative sanction to groups of individuals to establish such schools. The poor should always be taken care of; boys and girls of all classes should be educated free when the funds of the local institutions permitted ; religious freedom was insisted upon; occasionally, the trustees were elected by the public at large, and the legislature regarded its own action, public. Moreover, the state allowed and sanctioned, in some instances, the use of the income from the school lands for the support of academies; distributed to the academies their share of the common school fund, and allowed communities to tax themselves for the support of such institutions. In fact, the academy was permitted to do almost anything. The legislature assumed no continuous policy in the charters that it granted. The powers, duties and organization were left to the will of the incorporators generally. The laissez faire policy of the government followed the conscious democratic ideal of individual liberty after chartering the institution. The administrators had particular purposes...