How Free Public Schools in Pennsylvania were almost eliminated, but then were saved by one speech
Last edited Sat Feb 25, 2012, 09:55 PM - Edit history (2)
In 1834, a law was passed in Pennsylvania to establish a complete system of tax-payer supported public schools. However, many new legislators were voted into office in 1834 and they arrived at the State Capitol the next year with the votes needed to repeal the new law.
Then Thaddeus Stevens rushed back to the Capitol and rose to give a landmark speech before a combined session of the House and Senate that changed the course of history.
First, he attacked the previous law, which only provided meager education to the very poorest of young people. He said "Hereditary distinctions of rank are sufficiently odious; but that which is founded upon poverty is infinitely more so. Such a law should be entitled ' An Act for Branding and Marking the Poor.' "
Stevens responded to critics who complained about paying a school tax when they did not have children. He described people who "cheerfully pay the tax which is necessary to support and punish convicts, but loudly complains of that which goes to prevent his fellow being from becoming a criminal, and to obviate the necessity of those humiliating institutions."
He described how Ben Franklin had benefitted from free public schools in New England.
He stressed the need for Pennsylvania to polish the "bright intellectual gems " of her children.
He described how the builders of the Egyptian pyramids did not earn fame or honor and their names are forgotten. "Sir, I trust that when we come to act on this question we shall take lofty ground — look beyond the narrow space which now circumscribes our vision — beyond the passing, fleeting point of time on which we stand — and so cast our votes that the blessing of education shall be conferred on every son of Pennsylvania — shall be carried home to the poorest child of the poorest inhabitant of the meanest hut of your mountains."
The move to repeal free public education was stopped, and a system of free public schools went forward throughout Pennsylvania.
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http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/events/4279/fight_for_free_schools/473347
Quote from the above PA. History website:
"Who were the opponents of free public education? The aristocrats felt that education should be only for the "better" people, the "well-born" or the wealthy. The conservatives or "standpatters" opposed it just because it was new. Some taxpayers, rich and poor, thought it meant too great an increase in taxation. Non-English-speaking groups feared that the free schools would cause the loss of their languages and distinctive cultures. There was also an element who had no use for "book-learning," and had great contempt for teachers and schools."
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Thaddeous Stevens went on to become a prominent abolitionist and a powerful US Congressman who tried to protect the rights of newly freed slaves after the Civil War. There is physical evidence that the basement of his house was a hiding place for the Underground Railroad. He owned a tavern next to his home, and apparently slaves were brought into the tavern hidden in barrels.
He insisted upon being buried at the only cemetery that also allowed the burial of African-Americans. He shared his house for many years with an African-American woman.
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One more quote from the speech:
“When I reflect how apt hereditary wealth, hereditary influence, and, perhaps, as a consequence, hereditary pride are to close the avenues and steel the heart against the wants and the rights other poor, I am induced to thank my Creator for having, from early life, bestowed upon me the blessing of poverty.
It is a blessing – for if there be any human sensation more ethereal and divine than all others, it is that feelingly sympathizes with misfortune.”
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