Little effort has been made to analyze either the sources of educational funding or the nature of school expenditures in nineteenth-century Massachusetts. The financial aspects of educational development have been generally ignored. Part of the explanation for the dearth of financial studies of education is that it is difficult to obtain the necessary data and, perhaps, that the subject impresses many as dry or unimportant. This situation is unfortunate, because financial considerations played a large role in decisions made about education at both the state and the local level. Using state and local records, we consider briefly in this chapter some aspects of school finance and how they influenced school policy.

Public and private school expenditures

One underlying factor that influences the financial strain of mass education in any society is the number of children relative to the number of adults. This statistic is a version of what demographers call a dependency ratio. The education of children requires considerable energy and resources. Whether the parents undertake this function or share it with other institutions, such as churches or schools, the extent of the burden of education depends to a large degree on the relative number of children who need formal or informal training. Societies with a high proportion of young children have to devote a larger percentage of their resources to educating youngsters than do those with relatively fewer children.