First True Public School Plan For Arkansas *********************************************************** Submitted by: Bill Boggess Date: 02 May 2007 Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm *********************************************************** January 11, 1851 : Arkansas Gazette, Little Rock Arkansas: An act of the General Assembly which authorized the establishment of a district school in every township in Arkansas was approved by Governor Roane. The township, or district schools as thus provided for were put "under the jurisdiction and control" of County Courts. The act further provided that "a majority of the householders in any township in the state may, by petition to the County Court, procure the sale or lease of the 16th section in their township; the proceeds of which are to be depoisted in the county treasury, and held, or disposed of, as may be most beneficial to the township." (This act, which marked the first really serious attempt to establish a system of common schools in Arkansas, was passed as a result of a promse of additional aid from federal governmet in suport of common schools. [United States] Senator Solon Borland [] had introduced a bill in Congress on December 31, 1849, which had already passed the Senate, and which, if it were enacted into law, would yield as Borland surmised, ample funds with which "to carry out the most admirable system of common school education that can be devised.")