<Ul> <Li> Public Education reservations of the Land Ordinance of 1785 Background:* </Li> </Ul> <Li> Public Education reservations of the Land Ordinance of 1785 Background:* </Li> <P> The Land Ordinance of 1785, adopted May 20, 1785 by the Continental Congress, set the stage for an organized and community - based westward expansion in the United States in the years after the American Revolution . Under the 1785 act, section 16 of each township was set aside for school purposes, and as such was often called the school section . Section 36 was also subsequently added as a school section in western states . The various states and counties ignored, altered or amended this provision in their own ways, but the general (intended) effect was a guarantee that local schools would have an income and that the community schoolhouses would be centrally located for all children . An example of land allotments made specifically for higher education is Ohio's College Township . </P> <P> Each western township contained thirty - six square miles of land, planned as a square measuring six miles on each side, which was further subdivided into thirty six lots, each lot containing one square mile of land . The mathematical precision of the planning was the concerted effort of surveyors . Each township contained dedicated space for public education and other government uses, as five of the thirty six lots were reserved for government or public purposes . The thirty six lots of each township were numbered accordingly on each township's survey . The centermost land of each township corresponded to lot numbers 15, 16, 21 and 22 on the township survey, with lot number 16 dedicated specifically to public education . As the Land Ordinance of 1785 stated: "There shall be reserved the lot No. 16, of every township, for the maintenance of public schools within the said township ." </P>

The land ordinance of 1785 gave the government the right to manage unsettled lands