Development of Free Public Education in Mississippi Between 1868 and 1919

In the 50 years after establishing public education in the state constitution great changes occurred in public opinion from not supporting education, especially the use of taxes for funding, to overwhelming voter support for education. There were many socioeconomic reasons for this change in opinion among them governmental involvement improvements in higher education and teacher education and trouble with the agrarian lifestyle. Hindrances to these changes were racial tensions, historic lack of education and general resistance to change.

"Before 1870, Mississippi had no real public education system. In the antebellum era, Mississippi's white leaders never embraced the notion that one of the state's duties was to provide free public schools for its children " This is a fact that has been well documented. The interesting question is why then in the 1870's did education become an issue? There are two primary reasons for this development both of which are interrelated. One was the Republican Reconstructionist government that was involved at that time. And the second was an increase in funds available for education.

"When the first legislature of the new government convened in the winter of 1870, dominated by a similar group of white and black Republicans, it created a system of ʻfree' public schools in which ʻall children between the ages of 5 and 21 shall have equal advantages.' The divisive issue of whether these schools should be integrated was left to local option." A committee from the US Senate in a an 1875 report justifies the 1870-75 school expenditures of $320,000 per year in Mississippi "... the school system has been carried on at an expense very large, a thing that never existed before the war" As if to further reinforce the state of education that they were attempting to remedy they note that "The only common school system in the State before the war seemed to be a well organized system to squander the school fund of the state as rapidly as the same was donated to the state by the Government." While the Government funded a large expanse of the funds dedicated to the establishment of the school system in the state, it was not the sole source of funding.

Part of the increase in funds was from donations made by out of area philanthropists to contribute to the founding of education. One such person was George Peabody who "had made a gift of $2,100,000, which he increased to $3,500,000 in 1869, for the promotion of education in the South" Interestingly enough "at the time of his [Dr. Sears general agent of the Peabody fund] death in 1880, all of the eleven States of the South which had constituted the Confederacy .. had established public-school systems ... and were moving onward to their larger development in response to the educational evolution of a new economic and social condition."

While establishing and funding schools was essential in its formation, gathering the public support to continue schools and have children in attendance was a difficult process. "The advantages of the public school system of our county are now universally admitted yet this institution... has had to push its way upward from a small beginning against a host of opposing forces such as prejudice, superstition and dogmatism" In order to crush these forces several steps had to be taken.

First education had to be defined and then rationalized to the general public. There was a historic opinion that education related to character formation. "From the beginning, lessons in morals were given precedence over all others and the fact was impressed upon them that education should mean the making of character" Dr Walter Hillman in 1887 makes a plea for common schools, he attempts to convey what they are and why they are necessary.

"What are common schools? They are schools for the mental and to a certain extant the physical and moral development of the children of the State ... common, because they are to be found everywhere where children in sufficient numbers are to be found ... no nation whose government depends upon the will of the people, can perpetuate itself, unless a very considerable amount of virtue and intelligence exists among the people ... but great in being able wisely to adapt means to their ends in developing resources. A state with the masses educated may not surpass in the fine arts ... but in practical arts those which have to do with good living it will far excel the one in which a privileged class is educated."

He believed firmly in the fact that when trying to build an education system you had to start with younger children at the base level before you could work on higher education facilities. The rational for this was that if there were no students to enroll in higher education there was no way to make it viable.

Secondly the schools had to be financially well managed and held accountable. "But a more economical and judicious administration of its affairs and a clearer insight into its advantages and the consequent removal of prejudice has in great measure dissipated those fears" This was written into state law in 1878. "Sec 10 Be it further enacted that the board of education shall audit all claims against the common school fund..." This ended up creating an unforeseen problem in the fact that: "it happened that the entire management of the schools, from the assessment of the taxes to the employment of the teachers, was in the control of the non-tax-paying class." The reason that this came about was "the requirement that county superintendents, who were to be paid from the local treasuries, should be appointed by the state board of education, thus depriving the people of the several counties of the privilege of choosing competent residents to manage their educational affairs, and compelling them in some instances to accept non-residents -- "carpet baggers" selected by the central authorities at Jackson." The people having long believed in the power of local authority were resentful of these changes.

Distribution and application of funds was a huge issue. This aspect included the distribution of schools, the teachers, and the school buildings themselves. One of the first plans of action to improve the school system was the belief that "Fewer schools and larger ones will not only diminish the cost but will increase their efficiency" That this advice was taken is evinced in the documentation by the Superintendents of Education. According to Henry R Rease the first state superintendent; in 1871 there were 3450 public schools, 100 graded schools, a few Peabody schools 80 high schools all with a combined enrollment of 117,000. Nearly 2 decades later in 1888, according to JR Preston, there were several hundred small rural schools, 34 graded schools, 150 high schools, 90 academies and 6 colleges

The state of teachers for this developing school system was quite sad. "in the past history of the common school system ... nothing has done more to impair its efficiency than the waste of public funds on unworthy and incompetent teachers' The reason for this is evidenced by statistics such as these which come from the early 1900's. First "In twelve Mississippi counties, a recent study shows that 63 1/2 per cent of the teachers are in their first year in their present posts, 23 per cent in their second [year' Also 1902 there is a study which notes that there are 3 types of teachers in rural schools The first type consists of 75% of teachers. These teachers received no other training than in ungraded country schools. The second group has some high school education but did not graduate high school. The third type represents the smallest number. People who had some college training unfortunately these seldom remained in the country school system The freshness and the uneducated aspect of teachers could easily be attributed to the lack of higher education available in the state at the time in attempt to solve this, during the terms of Governor Noel (1908-12) and Superintendent of Education JN Powers along with WH Smith rural school supervisor. A law was enacted which provided for college for training of teachers for the rural schools. In response to this law in 1910 the "Normal College" was established. The effectiveness of this college was not immediate because it wasn't until1922 that they were granted the authority to grant degrees. In 1924 its name was changed it the State Teacher's College

Worse still was the state of the school houses. "Another defect is in the schoolhouses.... The country schoolhouse is in many cases a big, dirty hut, often built of logs, wretchedly furnished, and devoid of the commonest appliances of civilization. ... You may find neat and tidy rural schoolhouses, actually painted, but they are far from typical." Why were these school houses kept in such a state of disrepair? The answer to the question is found in the statement "There seems to be a feeling throughout the South that schoolhouses cannot be built wholly out of taxation, but the people on the ground must contribute at least a part of the cost.' This leads into the issue of taxation used for schools as a whole.

There was a belief that it "is not right ... to tax the rich for the benefit of the poor' The response to this was "... can the rich be taxed to build alms houses, asylums... jails and penitentiaries ... courts' The extent to which education was not deemed worthy of education is noted in an 1878 law which in regards to schools being open more than the US Constitutional requirement of 4 months "but whenever such schools cannot be maintained and paid for without levying and collecting a tax for county school and county purposes that shall in the aggregate exceed 7 dollars and 50 cents on each thousand dollars of taxable property" to instead open the schools only the four months rather than increase taxation. This is a tax of .007% yet it was deemed unacceptably high by the general public.

It wasn't until 1890 that the common school fund of a $2 poll tax that was retained in county and school district was deemed not satisfactory. Many people in the state believed that the Federal Government should contribute greatly to the funding of the education system. But the outside view on that belief was that "For the Government now to grant this help to States which have so willfully neglected to provide such means of education as are within their power, would not only be unjust, but would have too much the appearance of rewarding the negligent who are unwilling the help themselves' This outside opinion was based on the fact that in 1883 MS $2.70 spent only per student. In comparison New England states spend $10-$20 per student, for example in Connecticut they spent $17.80 per student, in Massachusetts $14.93, in New York $10.09 and in Rhode Island $11.60. There is no other explanation other than to "attribute it to neglect or want of appreciation of the value of education..."

The state was aware of the problems caused by the populace not wanting to fund schools "common schools could be made to grow ... if some means could be devised to induce local rural communities to raise money for the support of the schools" The committee founded to study the rural school problem came to several conclusions the first being that "the rural school problem is practically the education problem" The second conclusion was that funding was the biggest obstacle for it was believed that if the state were to "secure to the schools money adequate to their needs .. and their other urgent needs... must inevitably follow" The committee also identified that there were three main obstacles to obtaining this funding. The first obstacle was the sparse population of rural communities. The second obstacle was the lack of general sentiment favoring educational progress and the third was the races having separate schools. In regards to the first obstacle the solution was to combine small schools into larger units "consolidated schools" with the authority to pay for transportation out of public funds. The solution to the second was that "there is only one way to overcome this difficulty, this lack of interest in schools. And that way is to educate the people out of it." In other words the belief that the change would occur over time as the benefits of education were seen.

The solution of how to accomplish any change in order to see the long term benefits come about seemed to browbeat the populace and to shame them into paying up. In what was a favorite speech of Superintendent of Education Willard F Bond, in office from 1916-1936, "They believe now you are the finest daddies in the world ... but someday ... they are going to have the minds of men and women and will know whether or not you because of the love of a few cold dollars or other reasons failed to give them a change to get the preparation they would need to get on in the world in which they would have to live after you are dead and gone." Bond states that he would frequently give this speech outside of town halls, where he could reach the most people gathered.

In the same 1878 laws it was stated "Be it further enacted that the schools in each county shall be so arranged as to afford ample free school facilities to all the educable youths in that county but white and colored pupils shall not be in the same school house but in separate school houses" The results of this statement would be of such a widespread nature that could not have been envisioned at the time. "The masses of the Negroes are today farther away from the white man's world than they were during slavery, as a result of race segregation. There was then much more of that intimate and personal contact which is indispensable to the imitative absorption of white culture by the black." While some people understood that there was importance in diversity, "While our activities are quickened and multiplied by our schools, and while it is thus true that to educate is to diversify, it is just as profoundly true that to diversify is to educate" the opinion was by no means popular.

For the most part, the black schoolhouses were seen as a drain on public funds."