March, 1886: According to the Kaufman Sun, there were 71 school districts in the county besides those of Kaufman and Terrell, with 4,700 pupils inside the scholastic ages of 8-16. The County received $24,300 free school (note: Nothing is free according to my economics teachers!) money from the State every year. There were excellent high schools at Kaufman, Terrell, Forney, Kemp, Cedar Grove, and fair prospects for several more in the near future.
1887: The office of County Superintendent was created by law. The Commissioners Court was empowered to decide the question of creating the office in each county, and since the county judge had acted as ex-officio county superintendent since 1884, very few counties created the office until the Law of 1907 required its establishment in counties having 3,000 or more scholastic population.
The office was not established in Kaufman County until August 12, 1907, although two previous attempts had been made to secure it!
The establishment of the Office of County Superintendent introduced a period of development of the common schools of the County, which was furthered by the creation of the County Board of School Trustees in 1911, to which was given the general management and control of the public free schools and high schools of the County.
The County Judge had been ex-officio County Superintendent since 1884, but no records are available until the school year of 1894-1895, when there were 71 “one-teacher schools” and 8 “two-teacher schools” for White children and 8 “oneteacher schools” for Negro children. The average salary for that year was $160 for the term (averaging about 4 months) for White teachers and $100 for Negro teachers. 86 Districts levied no tax for the maintenance of schools, and five levied 20 cents per the 100 dollars valuations of properties.
Many factors stimulated the growth and development towards the present “school system.” The Peabody Fund provided for employment of Superintendents in towns. A law permitted towns to issue bonds for building of schools. The Conference for Education was organized in 1907. The Schoolhouse Building Law was amended in 1913. The Rural State Aid Law was enacted in 1915. The Smith-Hughes Aid for Vocational Training came about in 1917. The adoption of “free” textbooks began in 1919. And a major turning point, at least for school systems in rural areas of Kaufman County, were the changes in the Rural State Aid Law to provide for high school tuition in 1925 and bus transportation in 1933.
The time had arrived in “public schools” that a diploma from an accredited high school was required to enter college!
Because it was often impossible for pupils in rural and small-town schools to obtain accredited high school diplomas without going away from home, Texas saw the beginning of CONSOLIDATING many rural schools into, for the most part, TOWN SCHOOLS. However, for some years after these beginnings, many rural schools still maintained grades 1—8.
After the passage of the 1933 Transportation Law, they slowly began to consolidate.
During the 1950-1951 school year, Friendship, Tolosa, and Stubbs no longer were listed as ”active schools.” Elmo, Lawrence, and Liberty had only grades 1-8 for White students. Elmo, Lone Oak, Post Oak Bend, Daugherty, Rand, and Scurry Rosser had grades 1-8 for Black students. Lawrence had grades 1-6 for Black students.
Within the next ten years, all the schools were consolidated into the “now existing” seven school districts of Kaufman County— Crandall, Forney, Kaufman, Kemp, Mabank, Scurry-Rosser, and Terrell. Some of the older school districts were ”parts” of adjoining counties, while Kemp and Mabank included parts of Henderson County.
The middle of the 1960s brought DESEGREGATION to the Public Schools of Kaufman County.
And so, these articles of the coming of Education to Texas, and especially to Kaufman County come to an end. I have enjoyed learning some “new history lessons” and reviewing some old, and I am appreciative of the information supplied by History of Kaufman County, Volume Two (1984).
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