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Chapter 21: The Transformation of Education
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The Transformation TheFree!khool IdeaintheFirst Constitution.Freepublic educationmade little progress in West Virginia before the Civil War. Only Kanawha, Ohio, and Jefferson counties provided free schools for all children, although a few others were contemplating adoption of the plan when the war came. Many West Virginians, nevertheless, shared a common American belief that a close link existedbetween educationand materialprogress, andthey didnot wanttobe left farther behind than they were. When the question of public schools came before the Committee on Education of the West Virginia Constitutional Convention of 1863, Gordon Battelle, chairman of the committee, turned for advice to the Reverend Alexander Martin, a professor at Allegheny College in Meadville, Pennsylvania. Within two weeks Martin presented "An Outline of a System of General Educationforthe New State,"basedupon the premise that "the educationof the people . . . is the only exhaustless mine which the people possesses" and shouldbe "as free as the air . . .and the light of Heaven."l His plan called for a system financed through state appropriations,incomefrom a permanent school fund, and local taxes and administered by a state board of education, a state superintendent, county superintendents, and local officials. The convention adopted the Martin outline, but it declined to accept proposals for funding recommended by the Education Committee. It limited sourcesof schoolrevenueto net proceedsfromthe saleof delinquentor forfeited lands; the new state's share in the Literary Fund and in moneys, stocks, and properties owned by Virginia for educational purposes; the proceeds of estates escheating to the state; possible grants and bequests for educational purposes; and such sums as the legislature might appropriate. Fearing that "the bottom had dropped out of the whole scheme," Battelle offered a resolution that the legislatureshould "as soon aspracticable" provide for "a thorough andefficient system of free schools."* 'Charles H. Ambler and Festus P. Summers, West Virginia, the Mountain State, 2d ed. (Englewood Cliffs, N.J.:Prentice-Hall,Inc., 1958),299. 2Charles H. Ambler, Frances Haney Atwood, and William B. Mathews, eds.,Debates and Proceedings of the First Constitutional Convention of West Virginia, (1861-1863),3 vols. (Huntington : Gentry Brothers, 1942),vol. 1, 388-89. 240 West Mrginb: A History Legislative Provisions for Free Schools. On December 10, 1863, the legislatureadopted a more detailedplan presented by Andrew F. Ross, principal of West LibertyAcademy. The statuteauthorizeda six-monthschool term for all youth of the state, provided for divisionof countiesinto townships and the latter into subdistricts in which school matters could be decided in mass meetings, and specified procedures for election of county superintendents and district commissioners.The election of a state superintendentwas set for February 16, 1864, when William Ryland White, a Methodist minister and principal of Fairmont Male and Female Academy, was chosen for the term ending March 3, 1865.To finance the new system, the legislature authorized a general property tax, with the rate not to exceedten centson eachone hundred dollarsof assessed valuation. It required townships with more than thirty eligible Negro childrento provide for their education, but not in the schools attended by white children. In somerespects the new systemproved disappointing.Meetingsof citizens in sparsely populated mountain townships were often not feasible, and in 1867 the legislature vested responsibility for organizing and maintaining schools in township boards and supervision of each school in local trustees. Local tax revenues were inadequate, and in 1867the minimumschoolterm was reducedto four months. Despite severe handicaps, the schools made progress during the first years of statehood.The averageterm increased from 2.7 monthsin 1865-1866 to 4.1in 1869-1870. In 1870the 2,257 schools were staffed by 2,405 teachers, of whom 641were women.Of the 2,113schoolhouses, 1,104were frame structures. A few towns, including Clarksburg and Parkersburg, established public schools for Negroes, and othersfounded with aid from the Freedmen's Bureau laterbecame public institutions.Exceptin afew towns, such asWheeling, salariesof teachers were low, the average being only slightly more than thirty dollars per month. An Era of Change. Rapid advances in education occurred during the years between adoptionof a new constitution in 1872and World War I. The constitution placed control of the school fund in a board composed of the governor, superintendentof freeschools, auditor, and treasurer;required county sheriffsto collect all school levies and make annual settlements with county courts; and continued the requirement of separate schools for white and black pupils. The term of the state superintendent was extended to four years, but the office became political, leading to a request by the State Teachers Association that it be permitted to designate "some able, efficient...