A law enacted in 1908 requires that children between eight and fifteen years of age shall attend school twenty-four weeks each year, provided the public school in their district is in session that length of time.
Most of these hotlines are free and are supported by public school systems, government or other charitable funding.
The public school system was established in 1839, being based on the programme for state education prepared in 1816-1817 by Archibald Debow Murphey (1777-1832), whose educational ideas were far in advance of his day.
He graduated at Bowdoin College in 1840; and in 1847, at the request of Prof. Andrews Norton, went to Cambridge, where he was principal of a public school until 1856.
The public school system, however, was not established until 1825, and then it developed very slowly.
