The State of Education: School Reform in North Carolina
Between Reconstruction (c. 1863-1877) and the beginning of the 20th century, family life and work changed significantly for women in North Carolina. The agricultural economy of the 1860s had shifted; by 1900 hundreds of factories were booming in urban areas of the state, and railroads were being built to keep up with mill production. This economic boom, however, contributed to an educational divide between working class and wealthy North Carolinians. Parents who were able often sent their children away to boarding schools or hired private tutors to educate their children at home. In working class households it was expected that everyone in the family work to make ends meet. As a result, poor children were often illiterate, having never received a formal education.
In 1889, during his travels in North Carolina, educator Edwin Alderman noted the discrepancy in state funding for education versus industrialization: “Concord has the largest factory in the state, street cars, electric lights, and water works. Improvement in schools generally comes last… The Property men as usual run things and kill off all school aspirations.” Alderman’s commentary was not at all wrong; education was a periphery issue in the state and it would take a significant force to change it. In an effort to mend this gap in education, North Carolina governor Charles Aycock dedicated much of his life to improving public schools.
Aycock was known as the “Education Governor” and strongly believed that public education was the best investment that could be made for the future of North Carolina. In 1900 he ran on a platform that included better care for the mentally ill, direct primary elections, longer school terms, and black disenfranchisement (for more on this see “Race and Education”). Aycock was not alone in his efforts to prioritize education; reformists were working across the country to address these issues. In the early 1900s, the General Education Board (GEB) was chartered by the Rockefeller family of New York. The GEB was created to encourage the wealthy to give to the cause of public education in the US while simultaneously developing a “comprehensive educational policy” in the South, where it was needed the most. The Southern Education Board (SEB), in conjunction with the GEB, began their work in North Carolina in part due to the enthusiastic school reform efforts of Governor Aycock. In 1901 the SEB provided $10,000 for North Carolina to mount a two-year “vigorous educational campaign” led by Governor Aycock, State Superintendent Thomas F. Toon (quickly replaced by James Joyner, Superintendent of Public Instruction), and Dr. Charles D. McIver, a lifelong advocate for public education for women. This Central Campaign Committee for the Promotion of Public Education (CCCPPE) organized to come up with the best ways to improve rural schools and encourage local investment into their cause.
The Committee’s opening campaign included a “Declaration Against Illiteracy” which highlighted the state’s insufficient spending on school children. Statistics from the US Commissioner of Education showed that North Carolina spent a meager $3-4 annually on each white student (and significantly less for students of color) as opposed to the country’s average of $20.29; the CCCPPE hoped that highlighting the state’s poor showing would “arouse state pride” and encourage local taxation and improved schools. Their campaign was successful.
While these factors were all at work, the State Normal and Industrial College (SNIC), of Greensboro, North Carolina was consistently pushing out young, educated women who were eager to teach. As women left the SNIC and entered into schoolhouses across North Carolina, the reality of the state of education came into focus. Dr. McIver had long encouraged the women of the SNIC to “see the real needs of the world and then do something about it.” As SNIC graduates across the state took in the dilapidated schoolhouses, lack of basic hygiene, and poor educational materials, Dr. McIver’s charge rang in their ears. Little did he know, his words would ignite one of the most successful campaigns for school reform in North Carolina’s history.