[Sidenote: Michigan early provided for schools, and soon developed high and normal schools.]
In Michigan, on the other hand, where there was not such a mixture of population, and a complete sympathy with the common school idea appeared, there was almost unhampered progress from the beginning of statehood. Under the first constitution (1837), there was provision made for a permanent school fund and for a local tax in every district, although the schools were partly maintained until 1869 by ‘rate bills’ collected from the pupils. In accordance with the grant of two townships of land by Congress in 1826 for a university, the first legislature of the new state established the University of Michigan (Fig. 42), and its doors were open to students in 1841. It soon became the most prominent of the state universities. There was also provided a system of ‘branches’ of the university, whereby a liberal grant was made for an academy in any county that would furnish suitable buildings and a sum equal to the appropriation from the state. As this proved a dissipation of the university funds, it was gradually stopped, and between 1852 and 1860 ‘union’ and high schools were rapidly developed to supply the means of fitting for the university. In 1850 a state normal school was founded, and four others have since been added.
[Sidenote: Rapidity of development and triumph of common school idea in the West.]
In all the other territory acquired or purchased by the United States in its westward expansion, the educational history has been very similar to that in the first states of the Northwest. Progress in common school sentiment has been made _pari passu_ with the settlement of the country. Each state, upon admission, has received its sixteenth section of school land and two townships for a university, and in the states admitted since 1848 the endowment of schools has been increased to two sections, while Texas, which had been an independent republic (1836-1845), stipulated before becoming a state that it should retain sole possession of its public lands, and has set aside for education nearly two and one-half millions of acres. Hence in the first constitution of each state, permanent school and university funds, together with a regular organization of the schools of the state, have generally been provided. In few cases have sectarian interests been able to delay or injure the growth of common schools in any of the later commonwealths, and the interpretation of public education as schools for the children of paupers has never seriously influenced the West.