Hertford County, NC - Arkansas' First Public School Plan, 1851

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FIRST TRUE PUBLIC SCHOOL PLAN FOR ARKANSAS

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 
promise of additional aid from federal governmet in suport of common 
schools. [United States] Senator Solon Borland 
<http://www.rootsweb.com/~arpulask/Solon.Borland.html>
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.")

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This file was contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by
Bill Boggess - william-boggess@webtv.net
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