As rogueclassicism goes through a bit of a rethink (folks might notice some posts go up in the evening again), I find I can give a bit more attention to items like these. This one is another one of those claimed quotations about the ancient world, and somewhat unusually, it's pretty accurate. It begins with a paragraph from a piece in the Denver Education Reform Examiner:

I discovered a written copy of a conference oral presentation given at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government back in June of 1997. An example given details the story of a lawyer, dismayed by the lack of a high school in his community, decides to found one and supplies half of the money. The rest of the funding and the governing responsibilities are given over to the parents of the future attending students. He could very well have funded the entire school’s needs but reasoned that if there was an invested interest by the parents the school’s success and direction would be better served. This did not occur in our recent history, but in 60 A.D. The lawyer’s name was Pliny the Younger, a citizen of the Roman Empire. This was given as an example of the free market approach to education and was the focus of this presentation.

Now I don't claim to know Pliny's floruit, but I do know that he was but a lad in 79 A.D. when Vesuvius went kablooey, so the likelihood of him doing this isn't very. So we tracked down the oral presentation, by one Andrew J. Coulson. Inter alia:

But kids and schools did not just appear on the scene five decades ago, and neither did the debate over school governance. That point is most sharply driven home by a letter from a successful lawyer, outlining his views on schooling. He was born in the early sixties in a small town and lamented the fact that it didn't have a high-school, so he decided to found one himself. But rather than fully endowing the new school, which he could easily have afforded to do, he chose to supply only a third of the necessary funds. In his letter, he explained his decision this way:

I would promise the whole amount were I not afraid that someday my gift might be abused for someone's selfish purposes, as I see happen in many places where teachers' salaries are paid from public funds. There is only one remedy to meet this evil: if the appointment of teachers is left entirely to the parents, and they are conscientious about making a wise choice through their obligation to contribute to the cost. People who may be careless about another person's money are sure to be careful about their own, and they will see that only a suitable recipient shall be found for my money if he is also to have their own... I am leaving everything open for the parents: the decision and choice are to be theirs-all I want is to make the arrangements and pay my share.

What's remarkable about his letter isn't so much its contents as its context. As I said, it's author was born in the early sixties--not the early 1960s or the early 1860s, but the early 60s of the first century A.D. His name was Pliny the Younger, and he was a citizen of the Roman Empire.

[I've underlined the part which is purportedly a quote from Pliny]

Of course, Pliny did sell a chunk of land as an alimenta/foundation in his native Como. He wrote to his friend Caninius about it:

1 Deliberas mecum quemadmodum pecunia, quam municipibus nostris in epulum obtulisti, post te quoque salva sit. Honesta consultatio, non expedita sententia. Numeres rei publicae summam: verendum est ne dilabatur. Des agros: ut publici neglegentur. 2 Equidem nihil commodius invenio, quam quod ipse feci. Nam pro quingentis milibus nummum, quae in alimenta ingenuorum ingenuarumque promiseram, agrum ex meis longe pluris actori publico mancipavi; eundem vectigali imposito recepi, tricena milia annua daturus. 3 Per hoc enim et rei publicae sors in tuto nec reditus incertus, et ager ipse propter id quod vectigal large supercurrit, semper dominum a quo exerceatur inveniet. 4 Nec ignoro me plus aliquanto quam donasse videor erogavisse, cum pulcherrimi agri pretium necessitas vectigalis infregerit. 5 Sed oportet privatis utilitatibus publicas, mortalibus aeternas anteferre, multoque diligentius muneri suo consulere quam facultatibus. Vale.

(Epistulae 7.18; Latin Library)

You ask my opinion in what way the money which
you have offered to our townsfolk for an annual feast
may be secured after your decease. While the inquiry does
you honour, the decision is not an easy one. Suppose
you pay the amount to the municipality? It is to be
feared that it may be squandered. Suppose you give
land ? Being public land, it will be neglected. For my
part, I can find nothing better than what I did myself.
In lieu of five hundred thousand sesterces,* which I had
promised for the maintenance of free boys and girls, I
made over to the agent of the public property some lands
of mine of much greater value ; these I had reconveyed to
me on condition of paying thirty thousand sesterces
annually as a rent-charge. In this way the capital of the
municipality was made safe and the income was assured ;
the land itself, in consequence of there being a large margin
over the rent-charge, will always find an owner to culti-
vate it. I am aware that this cost me something more
than the amount of my nominal donation, as the lien of
the rent-charge has diminished the selling price of a very
handsome property. But one is bound to prefer public to
private interests, those that are enduring to those that are
mortal, and to be much more careful in securing one's
benefactions than one's property.

(trans. J.D. Lewis)

The endowment is also mentioned in CIL 5.5262 as one of the items of Pliny's 'c.v.' (see the restored text and translation at Livius.org).

Where this quote seems to come from, more or less, is from a letter to Tacitus:

Totum etiam pollicerer, nisi timerem ne hoc munus meum quandoque ambitu corrumperetur, ut accidere multis in locis video, in quibus praeceptores publice conducuntur. 7 Huic vitio occurri uno remedio potest, si parentibus solis ius conducendi relinquatur, isdemque religio recte iudicandi necessitate collationis addatur. 8 Nam qui fortasse de alieno neglegentes, certe de suo diligentes erunt dabuntque operam, ne a me pecuniam non nisi dignus accipiat, si accepturus et ab ipsis erit. 9 Proinde consentite conspirate maioremque animum ex meo sumite, qui cupio esse quam plurimum, quod debeam conferre. Nihil honestius praestare liberis vestris, nihil gratius patriae potestis. Educentur hic qui hic nascuntur, statimque ab infantia natale solum amare frequentare consuescant. Atque utinam tam claros praeceptores inducatis, ut in finitimis oppidis studia hinc petantur, utque nunc liberi vestri aliena in loca ita mox alieni in hunc locum confluant!'

(4.13.7ff; Latin Library)

I would even promise the whole amount,
were it not for the fear that such a gift might one day be
perverted by means of jobbery, as I see happens in many
places where teachers are engaged at the public expense.
This abuse can only be met by one remedy, and that is,
that the right of making these engagements should be left
to the parents alone, and that the conscientious care of
deciding rightly should be imposed on them by the
necessity of subscribing. For those who would perhaps
be careless of other people's property, will certainly be
careful of their own, and will see to it that none but a
deserving person shall receive my money, if he is to receive
theirs as well. Accordingly, I would have you come to an
agreement, and band yourselves together, and derive addi-
tional spirit from me, who am desirous that the sum which
I shall have to contribute may be as large as possible.
You can confer nothing more desirable on your children,
or more grateful on your own neighbourhood. Let those
who are born here be educated here, and from their very
infancy let them grow accustomed to love and to inhabit
their native soil. And I pray that you may introduce
teachers of such repute that this will be a source to which
neighbouring towns will resort for learning, and that, just
as now your children flock to other places, so strangers
may soon flock to this place."

(trans. J.D. Lewis)

Turns out the actual quotation comes from Betty Radice's translation of the Epistulae ... so outside of the dating problems, I guess we can give this one close to full marks.


FORGOTTEN LESSONS ORAL PRESENTATION DELIVERED TO THE CONFERENCE ON RETHINKING SCHOOL GOVERNANCE (School Choices)

Historical data about school control that might surprise (Denver Education Reform Examiner)