School funds in the province of Quebec

Contents

PAGE

Introduction i

School Finance and Number of Children 46

Preface

Almost all the facts and figures on which this study is based were secured from the printed reports and the various year books mentioned in the bibliography. I wish to acknowledge especially my obligation to Dr. George W. Parmelee, Secretary of the Protestant Committee of Public Instruction for the Province of Quebec, not only for access to articles written by him on education in the province of Quebec, but for numerous explanations given in private letters and conversation. I am under very great obligation to Professor George D. Strayer, of Teachers College, Columbia University, in whose department and under whose careful and encouraging supervision this study was made.

G. J. T.

Introduction

The war just closed has remarkably stimulated thought in every field of human activity. The whole question of education is receiving an unusual amount of consideratioXi. The daily papers are crowded with criticisms and suggestions, teachers' organizations are appointing commissions, and governments are blocking out new legislation. In no place is there more unrest and criticism than in the province of Quebec where the discussion seems to centre around the questions of compulsory attendance, and increased funds for school purposes.

There is some relation between the two, for a compulsory law, if enforced, would greatly increase the number of children at school, and thus add directly to the expense of education. Not only this, but a comparatively small number of schools in the province are now in a position to give eight years of valuable teaching to the pupils who might attend. At the present time the great majority leave school before the end of the fifth year, and one of the reasons for this is that there is nothing taught in the school to make it worth while to remain longer.

Again, a compulsory law to be enforced must be strongly backed by the authority of the provincial government; but in this democratic country local authorities snap their fingers at officers of the province, unless some pressure can be brought to bear. At present the provincial grants to school municipalities are so small that the withholding of them would often cause no serious inconvenience.

There should accompany the compulsory legislation, statutory provision for schools and text-books, absolutely free up through the compulsory grades or ages. In the province at the present time few schools are free, as the old-fashioned rate bill is compulsory in two thirds of the municipalities even in elementary schools. Free text-books are unknown.

Before a compulsory law can be enforced, or should be enforced, much more money must be available for school purposes. It is easy to call for more money, but there are no royal roads to provincial wealth, and the schools must be paid for by the people of the country.

It is because the financial problem seems to be so fundamental that I have believed it worth while to examine somewhat closely into the sources of our present school funds, the distribution of the burden of taxation, and possible means of securing further income.

While it is the custom to make sharp distinctions between municipal, provincial, and federal funds, they all have their source in the pockets of the same people, and one cannot fairly be studied except in relation to the other two. In the study of this question interesting bypaths have constantly come into view, and while it may appear at times as if these paths were being followed too far, it will generally be found that they lead back to the main highway.

It may at first sight occur to the careful reader that the deductions should be based on taxation rates through a number of years and not on those of one year only. The criticism is not a valid one; although rates vary slightly from year to year, and the general tendency is upwards, the large number of tax-levying units considered provides sufficient correction, and takes away the danger of basing conclusions on exceptional cases.

I have at the outset given a comparatively long description of the development of the present system. This seemed absolutely necessary as a preliminary to the understanding of the complicated problems found in the province of Quebec.

If we estimate from the founding of the city of Quebec in 1608 and consider the province under English rule from 1763 to the present, the French and English periods have each lasted one hundred and fifty-five years. No one could understand the present dual system of schools who did not trace its development on through the struggles of race and creed from the earliest days until the present. Such a study gives one also the sympathetic viewpoint so necessary for a fair estimate of education in Quebec.

The section dealing with the present method of financing the schools and the number of children to be educated presents several comparisons with other provinces and states. These may often be misleading unless it is kept in mind that almost half of the teachers do not bargain for salaries at all, but have

Introduction dedicated their lives to this particular kind of religious work. This makes it exceedingly hard to increase the salaries of the Catholic teachers beyond a living wage, for they are, in a sense, in competition with the religious teachers who ask and receive a bare living. This also keeps down the charges in Catholic convents and boys' schools, and does much to perpetuate the idea that teachers are like preachers and missionaries, and should be glad to serve the community for as near nothing as will keep body and soul together.

The problem of school funds is made still more difficult by the large families of the French population, among the very largest in the world to-day. This gives a much higher percentage of children in the population, and makes the task of educating them more than one third heavier, if this factor alone is considered, than in a province like British Columbia.

In the section dealing with the distribution of the load of taxation, there are, speaking generally, two kinds of comparisons kept constantly in sight: first, the rates of taxation in the different groups of school municipalities as compared with each other, and with those of Ontario and Massachusetts, and second, the variations between the different municipalities themselves, as they are found within their groups. The variations within the groups are very great, almost beyond credence. A study of this section will convince the most conservative that no more undemocratic system could be conceived.

A study of tax exemptions shows that this province is only taxing about seventy -five per cent of the real estate, and a study of valuations leads to the conclusion that property generally is assessed at from one third to two thirds of its selling value. When it is remembered that there is no tax whatever on personal property, and that there has been a remarkable increase in the last few decades in "intangible" forms of wealth, the conclusion is inevitable that Quebec is suffering, not from overtaxation, but from a bad adjustment or distribution of the tax burden.

Attention is called to some of the purposes for which more money is needed in education to-day. Not much is said about vocational training, technical education, medical inspection, and the care of exceptional groups, although Quebec is especially in need of all of these. The lamentable fact that a very large percentage of the children are not at school at all, and that more than half of those that do attend drop out before the fourth year at school, seems to dwarf the other problems and make the solution of this so fundamental as to receive first place.

Striking facts in regard to teachers* salaries and the small numbers attending normal schools are also presented, and the conclusion reached that only by greatly increased salaries can a trained staff be secured and kept.

Although the government now makes large grants to education, only a little more than one third goes to aid the public schools of the province, and this is mainly distributed on a wrong basis. While a small percentage is used to aid poor municipalities so called, the greater part is distributed with no reference whatever to the need, and, as a consequence, brings about no equalization to tax rates. Larger government grants distributed on a proper basis would equalize the tax burden, make uniformly good schools possible, and at the same time give the Superintendent of Public Instruction a leverage on the local communities that would make progress rapid and sure.

In order to get a grasp of the whole financial problem and ascertain, if possible, where the increased funds can be most fairly and readily found, an examination is also made of provincial and federal revenues. The province is shut up in its taxing powers between the municipality, on the one hand, and the federal government on the other, and, like the other provinces of Canada, has an inelastic revenue which is scarcely sufficient to meet present demands.

Education is really a Dominon-wide concern. The federal government acknowledged this in 1913 when it made large grants to the different provinces for agricultural education. The Royal Commission recommends that federal grants be given for technical education, and it is understood that these grants are likely to be made this year. But the need for primary education is far greater in Quebec to-day than that of higher technical training or even vocational education.

To supplement the present funds raised by taxation on real estate, the Dominion government should make large annual grants to the provincial governments, and the funds thus secured should be administered by the various departments of education on a basis carefully worked out by educational experts from all over Canada. In the last section of this study a good deal of data

Introduction are brought together in regard to the taxation of income. Quotations are given from leading economists on this and other forms of taxation. A general income tax is a new thing in Canada, and I thought it well to compare laws of other countries with our own, and give the experience of a state like Wisconsin where this method of raising funds for public purposes has proved such an undoubted success. My excuse for quoting at length the opinions of such economists as Professors Seligman of Columbia, Bullock of Harvard, and Adams of Yale, is that these men have made the study of this question a life's work; I have not, and must therefore back my argument by opinion of experts in that field. If it is asked why the income tax should be dealt with at all, my reply is that I undertook to find the money for extending the work of education in this province.

According to the present system of direct taxation real estate bears almost the whole burden of supporting municipal institutions. As there is no personal property tax in the province of Quebec, a large and increasing proportion of wealth has been escaping taxation. One remedy would be for Quebec to levy an income tax for herself. But the federal and provincial governments are trying to work out a separation of the sources of their respective revenues, and provincial governments have at least tacitly agreed to leave the income tax to the federal government. This is undoubtedly a good arrangement, but Quebec and the other provinces of Canada have a right to ask that a certain per cent of the tax be given over to the provinces for purposes of education. This is not a new principle in taxation. The proceeds of the Wisconsin income tax are distributed as follows: six per cent to the state, twenty per cent to the county, and seventy per cent to the municipality from which it came. This is not a democratic distribution, for the rich municipality does not help its poor neighbors.

Whatever money the Dominion hands back to the provinces for educational purposes should be apportioned on the basis of requirement, not of wealth. If Dominion funds are granted to'the provinces for education, should there not be established a federal department of education with a minister responsible to Parliament? In the United States a bill is now before Congress making provisions for such a department in that country. The situation in the United States is reviewed and the conclusion reached that such a department would be a great stimulus and guiding influence in Canadian education, and that it could be so organized as not to interfere in any way with the control each province now has of its own educational system.

Such, in brief, are the tasks I have undertaken and the conclusions reached. I believe sufficient data are presented to convince any careful reader of the correctness of these conclusions and of the necessity for acting on the recommendations put forward.

Chapter I

The French Regime. Quebec was ceded to Great Britain in 1763. Before that date the population was entirely French in language and nationality and mainly Roman Catholic in religion. Even in Europe at that time education had not made much progress am9ng the people, and it is scarcely likely that conditions were as good in Quebec. One cannot read the history of early French Canada, however, without realizing that the church did not neglect education.

In 1635 Father Lejeune wrote to Cardinal Richelieu from Quebec in these words : Families are beginning to multiply and they are already pressing us to open a school . . . what a blessing it would be if next year we should be writing that here in New France, we are conducting classes in three or four languages."^

A school for little children was really opened in 1635 under the direction of the Jesuits. Here they gave elementary instruction to the children of the French and Indian populations.

In 1 65 1 a new school was opened and conducted by a lay teacher, Martin Boutet. During the whole period of French occupation the Jesuits maintained in Quebec a school for children. In 1666 when the whole white population of Canada was only 3,215 souls, the Jesuits had twenty resident pupils in their school and the Ursuline nuns twenty-one and each had a larger number of day students.

As the population grew, other schools were founded, all under the direction of the church. It is not the purpose here to write a history of education in the province. Moreover, the conquest broke sharply into the normal development of the old system, and the present system is not a natural growth from the old regime. There are a few special schools of the day, however, that may well be mentioned.

In 1690 there was a school at St. Joachim where there were forty boarders whose expenses were paid by their parents, at the

1 Abbe A. E. Gosselin, "Education in Canada," in Canada and Its Provinces, Vol. XVI.

rate of three livres and one bushel of salt each per month. In 1693 Bishop Laval provided six scholarships for this school on the following conditions: The children were to belong to the country, to be of good morals, and adapted to manual labor. They were to be chosen by the directors of the seminary and to be fed, maintained, and instructed in good morals, in piety, in reading, and in writing, or trained to farm work or the industries carried on in the place, until they had reached the age of eighteen when they were supposed to be capable of earning their living. The scholarships amounted to some two thousand livres for each student for the whole period they were at the school.

It is interesting to note that in 1701 Abbe Soumande, director of the school at St. Joachim, gave eight thousand livres, in addition to ten thousand already given by him, in order to enable the seminary to carry on the instruction of certain pupils as far as the beginning of the humanities in order that they might be qualified to become school teachers.

This is the first normal training course provided in Canada. In those days the expense was borne entirely by the church or some of its generous officers. In 1704 the schoolhouse at Beaupre needed repair. Instead of calling on the church to do the work, the colonists themselves made a collection over all the nearby country and put the building in shape.

In 1673, writing of the school at St. Foye, Father Dablon said: "This year, our Hurons, having seen in the school for French children that those who misbehaved were chastised, came to the conclusion that in order to train their own children properly, it was necessary to chastise them for their faults . . . This is why the chief has the habit of now and again going around the village shouting at the top of his voice for the fathers and mothers to make known the faults of their children, that the boys may be whipped by the French schoolmaster and the girls by a good matron. "1

In 1692 Jean Francois Charon, a man of considerable means, born at Quebec, founded a sort of school and hospital in Montreal. By the King's charter it was to be "a refuge for orphan children, the maimed, and the old; the said children to be put to work at different trades and to receive as good an education as possible."

1 "Education in Canada," in Canada and Its Provinces, Vol. XVI.

This school grew apace and Charon opened up a normal training department and a normal school. In 1707 Raudot, the intendant, wrote: "Owing to the lack of schoolmasters, children are badly brought up. They ought to be corrected while they are still susceptible to discipline and for that purpose we require schoolmasters in all the settlements . . . Brother Charon is already trying to train teachers, but his community has not the necessary funds and ought to receive assistance. If the King would add two thousand livres to what he already allows, the Brothers could train teachers which would be a great benefit to the Colony."

Charon and his brother brought no less than twenty-four teachers to Canada from France, in addition to those they trained in their own school. Girls' schools were established as early as those for boys and in even greater numbers.

As for higher education, in 1637 the Jesuits established a Latin School in Quebec. The course of instruction was the same as that given in Jesuit colleges in France and Europe generally. They were supported by the Jesuit order and grants from the King. In 1759, after a continuous existence of more than one hundred and twenty-five years, the college at Quebec began to go down. After the conquest no new priests or teachers were allowed to come to Canada. The school gradually went down until the complete suppression of the Jesuits by the edict of the Pope and the confiscation of their lands by the State.

During this early period schools were fairly general in Canada. They were supported by private gifts, by the church and religious orders, by grants from the government of old France and by fees and collections from among the people themselves.

The British Occupation. When the conquest came in 1759, a great change came to Quebec. After the treaty of Paris in 1763, the men of wealth, the aristocracy, the army, many of the priests and teachers who were born in old France, left Canada forever.^ Nor were French priests and teachers allowed to come from old France to Canada for a good many years. While this provision was a wise one from the point of view of expediency, it made things that much harder for Quebec. From that time on, the people

1 Abbe Adelard Desrosiers, "French Education in Quebec," in Canada and Its Provinces, Vol. XVI.

had to look to the ordinary priest, born and trained among themselves, for leadership. Their new rulers were of different religion, language, and national ideals, and naturally could not understand, appreciate, nor intelligently direct their French subjects. The large properties of the religious orders were in part confiscated and the colonists were, with one blow, left without their educational leaders and means of supporting their institutions. In 1777 the Jesuit order was suppressed by the Pope and a good part of the revenue of their property was used to support Protestant schools.

In 1787, Lord Dorchester, who was then governor, called together a commission of inquiry to study the question of education. This commission was made up of five Englishmen and four Frenchmen. Considerable proof was accumulated as to the lack of education in the colony and the commission recommended the establishing of a great university that should have supervision over an educational system that would include every grade of study. The report recommended also:

(1) The erection at once of parish or village schools throughout the province which should teach reading, writing, and ciphering.

(2) The establishing in the central town of each district of a free school in which arithmetic, language, grammar, book-keeping, gauging, navigation, surveying, and the practical branches of mathematics should be taught. The free schools were to be supported in part by rating the parishes on an assessment basis.

The commission was two and a half years preparing the report and it was presented as unanimous. The Roman Catholic coadjutor bishop of Quebec was in favor of it, and it seemed as if rapid progress might be made. Nothing was done. The French population was naturally suspicious and perhaps not ready for such progressive legislation. The heads of the church were generally of the opinion that it was a scheme to put a Protestant and English university at the head of their educational system.

While the few English families at this time in the province were not really scheming to coerce the French, it was probably their opinion that the French would gradually learn English and forget their native language, and this view on the part of the English, and the feeling of suspicion it engendered in the French, did much to delay the establishment of any comprehensive system of education. In the meantime, several exiled priests

II arrived in Canada from France and did something to advance education among the French.

The Royal Institution of Learning. In 1793 there came to Quebec Dr. Jacob Mountain, the first bishop of the EngUsh Church appointed for Quebec. He urged strongly upon the English government that something be done to solve the educational problem. The French were suspicious of him and believed that his whole aim was to put a committee of the Anglican Church over their schools and gradually undermine the authority of the Catholic Church. The English government was impressed by Dr. Mountain's letters and in 1801 the Governor of Quebec spoke as follows to the House of Assembly: ''With great satisfaction I have to inform you that His Majesty from His paternal regard for the welfare and prosperity of His subjects in this colony, has been graciously pleased to give directions for the establishing of a competent number of free schools, for the instruction of their children in the first rudiments of useful learning and in the English tongue and also, as occasion may require, for foundations of a more enlarged and comprehensive nature and His Majesty has been further pleased to signify his royal intention that a suitable proportion of the lands of the crown should be set apart and the revenue thereof applied to such purposes.

During the session of the Quebec legislature following an act was passed founding "The Royal Institution for the Advancement of Learning." This was the first act dealing with education ever passed by the legislature of the province.

The law was very complicated and did not come up to the expectations of those interested. In 1803 the executive council set aside sixteen townships for the purpose of aiding education and the King sanctioned a gift of 20,000 acres each to the Royal Grammar Schools to be established in Quebec and Montreal. These gifts were and remained on paper.

In 1 81 8 the Royal Institution was organized for business. Of the eighteen trustees named by the Crown, fourteen were English Protestants, three, officials in Upper Canada. The Anglican bishop was president and the secretary was a strong Anglican who was preparing for the ministry of the church. Almost all the teachers were brought from England and knew nothing of the French language. Such men as these were not well fitted to

Laws of Lower Canada, compiled in 1830, Vol. XI.

establish schools in Quebec where the people were French and Catholic.

In 1822 there were thirty-one schoolmasters under the direction of the society, of whom twenty-three were English. In 1838 there were thirty-seven schools in operation. Only eighty-seven schools were conducted by the society altogether and nearly all had disappeared by 184 1.

More Practical Legislation. The next piece of legislation was in 1824. This was much more practical and was satisfactory to th^ majority 4 Before giving any of its provisions, it will be worth while to call attention to an old custom of the French people. They had been accustomed to paying tithes for the support of the church and in the twenty-seventh section of the terms of capitulation of 1759 is the following request: "The people shall be obliged by the English Government to pay their priests the tithes and all the taxes they were used to paying under the Government of His Most Christian Majesty."

This privilege was not immediately granted, but was held over to receive the English King's sanction. This is made clear by an act (34 George III, 1791), which states: "Whenever it shall become expedient to form parishes and build or repair churches, the same course shall be pursued as was requisite before the conquest," viz., "to make repartition and assessments on each inhabitant who owned land."^ It will thus be seen that in the province of Quebec the principle of taxation was well understood and the machinery for collecting taxes ready to hand at an early date.

Before the Act of 1824 was passed, the local church guilds or fabriques, as they were called, had frequently established schools in their own parishes. In 1824 the historian, Bibaud, stated that there were few parishes of any size in which there was not a school on a more or less satisfactory footing. Among the French, the congregation of Notre Dame had seventy-two teachers; the Ursulines of Quebec, forty-three; of Three Rivers, twenty-six. The Educational Society in Quebec had a school attended by two hundred and fifty children, run on the Lancasterian system. There were thirteen rural convents and there were fabrique schools in forty-eight parishes.

Bearing this in mind, one sees the absurdity of the attempt to establish in French parishes the Schools of Royal Foundation.

^ Laws of Lower Canada, Vol. XI.

The only way to do was to move on in harmony with principles already established and, while utilizing existing machinery, introduce more system and better methods.

The law of 1824 states in the preamble: "Whereas the institution of elementary schools in the several parishes of this Province, in diffusing the principles of a good moral education, will contribute to the promotion of Industry and Agriculture and, whereas it is necessary to provide means for facilitating their establishment, therefore be it resolved, etc. . . .

It was provided that each vestry board, or fabrique, in the province should be given authority to acquire land, money, and other property for the purpose of founding and supporting one or more elementary schools in the parish. They were authorized to provide first one school in each parish. If there were two hundred families in the parish, they might establish a second school and so on in the proportion of one school for every hundred families. In order to establish and maintain the schools, every fahrique was entitled to apply out of its annual income a sum of money not exceeding in any case one fourth of the actual income of the fahrique.

Each fahrique had to render annually an account in writing on the third Sunday after Easter, at a meeting of the resident landowners in the parish, stating the income and expenditure of the schools for the twelve preceding months, the number of pupils, and the name of the schoolmaster.

As the funds in the hands of the fahrique had been raised by taxation on the landowners of the parish, there is here a provision for the support of schools entirely by local taxation. The funds had been first raised for church support and, as one fourth of the whole amount raised could go for school purposes, the framers of this act had some idea of the importance of education. These fahrique schools were, of course, in every sense church schools. Later on legislation was made permitting them to join with other schools afterwards established in the parish.

By 1829 there were sixty- three of these schools regularly established.

Suhstantial Government Grants. In 1829 an act was passed making for the first time provision for legislative grants to schools throughout the province. This act provided as follows:

Laws of Lower Canada, Vol. XL

It shall and may be lawful for the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, or person administering the government, to advance by warrant or warrants under his hand the following sums in the course of the present year, from and out of the unappropriated moneys in the hands of the Receiver General for the purposes herein mentioned :

For the Society of Education for the District of Quebec, the sum of two hundred pounds Sterling to assist the said society in promoting and extending education in this Province.

Three hundred pounds Sterling to assist the same society in building a central schoolhouse for the district of Quebec, which said sum shall be paid to the president of the aforesaid institution in such payments as shall be deemed necessary. ^