Tip #548 EARLY SEMINARIES AND COMMON SCHOOLS Lewis Collin's gives an excellent overview of education in Kentucky in 1874 under title of Public Education of Kentucky. As early as February 1798, Legislature set aside public lands in the Commonwealth of 6,000 acres each for the establishment of seminaries named Franklin, Salem, Kentucky Academy and Lexington and Jefferson Seminaries. Other later acts in 1805 and 1808 extended these 6,000 acres to establish schools named: Shelby, Logan, Ohio, Madison, New Athens, Bethel, Bourbon, Bracken, Bullitt, Fleming, Hardin, Harrison, Harrodsburg, Lancaster, Montgomery, Newport, Newton, Rittenhouse, Stanford, Washington, Winchester, Woodford, Somerset, Transylvania, Glasgow, Greenville, Liberty, Rockcastle, Lebanon, Knox, Boone, Clay, Estill, Henry, Greenup, Grayson, Warren, Breckinridge, Caldwell, Gallatin, Henderson, Union, Adair, Allen, Daviess and Pendleton. The law stated "that all lands lying within the bounds of this Commonwealth on the south side of Cumberland river and below Obed's river, now vacant, shall be reserved for the endowment and use of seminaries of learning throughout the Commonwealth." The county courts in the counties authorized to have these seminaries met and lands were exempted from taxation. However, the courts did not always do a good job and some unwise decisions resulted. Some of the lands were allowed to be sold by the county authorities and the proceeds of the sales were supposed to be put in trusteeships - later being squandered or the funds forgotten entirely. Monies, which should be growing in size, were lost. In 1821 the Legislature provided that ½ of the net profits of the Bank of the Commonwealth should be set apart as a "Literary Fund" to go to the support of a "general system of education"; ½ of the net profits of the branch banks at Lexington, Danville and Bowling Green should be donated to Transylvania University, Center College and the Southern College of Kentucky. Over the years the Legislature tried over and over in the establishment of a public school system to be supported by the revenues from above and reports were prepared with various ideas. But, as Collin's stated "It is a singular phenomenon of the history of the internal economy of our State for seventy years that our main attempts at internal improvement and public education, at State expense, and under State superintendence, have been embarrassed or defeated almost wholly by the misdirection and mismanagement of incompetent legislation." The Legislature at approximately the same time pass legislation requesting our Senators and Representatives in Congress to advocate a bill for distributing the proceeds of the public lands to the older States as the newer States had been greatly "favored by Congressional grants" But, it was not until June of 1836 that any practical results were attained. The U S Congress, instead of appropriating more land, apportioned about $15,000,000 of surplus money in the Treasury to several of the older states in the form of a loan. Kentucky's share was $1,433, 757. There was no specific provision that this money was to be used exclusively for the "purposes of education". By February 1837, only $1,000,000 was set apart for the educational system; this was reduced to $850,000 by 1878. In 1838, the first real law was enacted in Kentucky for the establishment of a general system of "Common Schools". It sat there for 10 years with little success; the Legislature just wasn't that interested it appears. The Kentucky State Treasury and all credit in the state began to weaken under the current banking system. By 1840 the Commissioners of the Sinking Fund refused payment of the interest on the school bond due by the sate; a deficit occurred in the Treasury. By 1843 only $2,504 had been paid out for the benefit of the schools where $116,375 was due. Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge was the Superintendent of Public Instruction when an act passes in 1847-8 which directed the Governor to issue a new bond for all the arrears of interest due and provided for a submission of a proposition to a vote of the people to levy a tax of 2 cents on one hundred dollars to increase the revenue for the common schools. An ad valorem tax was easily passed. In 1849, the Convention met for framing a new constitution for the State. Larkin J Proctor, John D Taylor, William K Bowling, Ira Root, Thomas J Hood and Charles A Wickliffe were members of the Convention and they assisted greatly re the school funds. Debates and legislature continued through the years and by 1855 the tax was raised to five cents. By 1867 common schools got a much needed face lift - rules were tightened up on the education of the teachers, improving the facilities, consolidation of many districts, uniformity of text books, the encouragement of a graded system of the schools, and extending the school term from 3 to 6 months. These proposals were put forth by Zach F. Smith when he was the Superintendent of Public Instruction. School censuses were taken; for 1871 the reports showed 405,719 students enrolled; a dramatic increase within the past two years. In 1869 there were 4,477 schools shown; this had increased to 5,177. Collins showed a graph of the enrollment of students in what was referred to as the common school system: In 1841 there were 90 counties in Kentucky with 4,950 students. By 1873 there were 116 counties and over 427,526 students enrolled. When one reads the old biographies, it now makes more sense when the subject was stated to have "received an elementary education in what common schools of the area could afford" or words to the like. Common, or public, schools were rather looked down on for many years as they afforded little towards the education of the students. It was much preferred to have one's children in a private or subscription school. The seminary land idea did not work. Only a few seminaries were well funded with adequate staffing to produce the quality of education need for our Kentucky children. Land was sold, money squandered and the lands sold off to the public. Then the common school system struggled for many years with inadequate funding, poorly qualified teachers, too short a term. However, over the years, Kentucky has made tremendous strides in developing a public school system that is equipping the students with a solid foundation. © Copyright 7 July 2005, Sandra K. Gorin Sandi's Puzzlers: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~gensoup/gorin/puz.html SCKY Links: http://www.public.asu.edu/~moore/Gorin.html GGP: http://ggpublishing.tripod.com/