To Get a Better School System: One Hundred Years of Education Reform in Texas

Chapter 6: Epilogue

Chapter  Epilogue Although opponents of the Gilmer-Aikin legislation worried that the bill would erode democracy, increase spending, and destroy the rural community, the new program garnered praise from all areas. For school districts in poor areas, Gilmer-Aikin meant more funds to improve local schools. public support for the gilmer-aikin bills Irvin Wilson, superintendent of schools in Hallsville, in Harrison County, Texas, wrote to Senator Aikin about the need for funding in his district. “We have 500 students,” Wilson noted, “and do not even have a gymnasium.” The school also needed money to repair its buses. He concluded, “The people as a whole want this thing done. They are hoping the legislature will do this.” If the Gilmer-Aikin legislation needed support, Wilson would come to Austin. “If necessary, I could bring the county board, county superintendents, and other school men down there,” he offered. The groundswell of general interest in the legislation surprised even veteran Austin observers. An editorial in the Austin American in early May 1949 acknowledged the influence of public opinion on the legislature. “Lobbying has become the people’s business,” it noted. Political persuasion was once the purview of former senators and representatives and professional lobbyists, but now public citizens began to exert pressure on the Fifty-first Legislature. The writer guessed three times as many Texans came to Austin to speak their mind on legislation—some 3,000 interested people, many of them teachers. The shift from professional lobbyists to concerned citizens seemed a positive step, the writer concluded. In her history of the legislative battle, Rep. Rae Files Still of Waxahachie noted, epilogue 95 “House members complained daily about the increased burden placed on them” by the number of calls, letters, telegrams, and personal visits regarding the pending legislation. The education reporter for the Dallas Morning News, Alonzo Wasson, reported: The people of Texas have learned, or at least are beginning to learn, the improvidence of the small school. They have, for example, reduced the number of common school districts in this state from something more than 7,000 (100 in a single county at one time) to about half that number. But it has taken them twenty or thirty years to accomplish that reform. Much of the public support came from rural areas, and this influenced rural representatives to support the reforms. Just as Claud Gilmer believed his education limited his opportunities, A. M. Aikin remembered of his own schooling: I studied physics in a country school where we didn’t have anything but a book—no laboratory facilities of any kind, not even a sink. I came here thinking a child ought to get an equal educational opportunity whether he was born in an oil field or a cotton patch. That was the underlying principal of the GilmerAikin program. I still believe that. reaction to the gilmer-aikin laws Letters of approval flooded in from across the state: “It is possible that in the coming years the [Gilmer-Aikin legislation] will be considered as the greatest single step forward in the history of Texas public education. Millions of Texas school children will doubtless profit because of this legislation.” Another praised the bills saying, “Surely this is our best investment in democracy.” One predicted “that the people of Texas shall always be grateful to you for your part in improving the educational opportunities for their children.” Another proclaimed Gilmer-Aikin the “most progressive and far reaching measures that the legislature has yet passed” and correctly predicted that Aikin ’s name would be forever associated with the legislation. A writer reflected with state pride, “I feel that the Minimum Foundation Program will be the starting point of making Texas schools the envy of the rest of the nation,” and praised Aikin’s long hours of work in support of the bills. The Avery Independent School District superintendent, Frank C. Bean, 96 chapter 6 wrote praising Aikin’s support of rural education: “We teachers will always feel that your fight to enlighten the governor played a major roll [sic] in getting our MAGNA CHARTA.” Bean then offered Aikin the appreciation of the entire school district stating, “Every teacher I know has the very highest regard for you, and aside from any personal feelings that I may have, I am looking forward to your progress in any field you choose.” The conflict between Aikin and...