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Pennsylvania State Archives

RG-22
Records of the DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
AGENCY HISTORY


Although the first State constitution, that of 1776, called for the legislature to establish at least one school in every county, no action was ever taken under that provision. The State Constitution of 1790 ordered the government to establish schools throughout the State to such an extent that the poor would be "taught gratis." As a result, the first school districts were those set up within statutes called "Poor Laws," in 1802, 1804, and 1809. These laws called for free education for the poor only. The first two public school districts created for children from all levels of family income were those of Philadelphia (City and County) in 1818, and of Lancaster County in 1822. An act of 1831 established the Common School Fund, a source of revenue derived chiefly from sales of unpatented lands and land office fees. Although the act anticipated building up a monetary reserve, the schools themselves were not authorized until 1834, when the Free Schools Law was passed. The 1834 measure finally projected a system for the entire population. It created from each civil district, down to the wards within cities, a school district with a school board. Each district's electorate would choose whether it should establish public schools and thus draw from the Common School Fund to pay part of their cost. If it chose not to, the district's only obligation was under the 1809 Pauper School Law, meaning, in effect, that there might be no school at all if they did not recognize the existence of pauper children. In 1835, 59% of the districts voted to establish common schools. The percentage gradually increased until 1872, by which time all districts had opted in favor of schools. Two years later, the way was sealed against districts abolishing their schools when the Constitution of 1874 made public schools mandatory for all districts. However, mandatory attendance was not enacted until 1895, and then only for ages 8 through 13 and for only sixteen weeks each year.

Under the 1834 statute, districts were to arise in each township, borough, and city ward, but the School Code of 1854 eliminated wards and made each entire city a single school district. Also, in 1837 the legislature had begun to create special school districts not tied to townships, cities, or boroughs. Although in 1855 all these special districts were abolished, the power to created new independent districts was given to the courts of common pleas. The School Code of 1911 added "incorporated towns" to the list of civic units (although there is only one in Pennsylvania, Bloomsburg), and made a gradation into first, second, third, and fourth class districts, according to population. In 1921, "union school districts" were authorized by law.

From 1834 until an act of 1857 was implemented, the schools were administered under the Secretary of the Commonwealth (see RG-26, Records of the Department of State) acting as the Superintendent of Common Schools. The 1857 law created a separate Department of Education with a Superintendent as its director. This officer was appointed by the governor for a three year term, subject to approval by the State Senate. In the Constitution of 1874 the title was changed to Superintendent of Public Instruction, and the term lengthened to four years. The Department name became Department of Public Instruction (DPI hereafter). In 1969, the Department name was again changed, becoming Department of Education, and the Superintendent's title became Secretary of Education.

Until the passage of the School Code of 1854, the only supervision at the local level was through a clumsy inspection and visitation system. The Code created the office of county superintendent, elected by the county school boards of directors (themselves created by the 1834 law), for three year terms. The school boards decided teacher salaries, the grade levels, which school pupils should attend, the text books, and what was to be taught beyond the minimum specified in the Code: orthography, reading, writing, grammar, and geography. The county superintendent was responsible for seeing that the teaching was actually done, certifying the teachers as qualified, and reporting annually to the State Superintendent. Under this law, segregated schools for African Americans had to be set up by any district where there were twenty or more such pupils to be accommodated.

The public high school movement developed after the Free Schools Law, although Pennsylvania's government had been somewhat involved in secondary education (the school level between primary schooling and collegiate instruction) in earlier years. In the colonial period there had been a few private secondary schools. By the nineteenth century, private secondary institutions included schools owned by individual teachers, schools owned by shareholders who usually elected boards of trustees, and schools under church authority. The Penn Charter School, a latin grammar school under Quaker auspices, had begun in 1735. By 1860 there were 240 chartered academies. High schools (meaning secondary schools supported by public revenue derived from taxes) began in 1836, when Central High School of Philadelphia received a charter from the State. In 1849, Pittsburgh High School received a State charter. Other high schools began operating on the authority of local boards, without State charters. The academies hung on, however, because many admired the fact that they did not draw public revenues, but in the 1880s the high school movement expanded rapidly. An act of 1887 empowered those city and borough boards of education that already had common schools in several wards to establish high schools when they chose to; in 1893 this privilege was extended to boroughs that were not divided into wards but had a population of 5,000 or more; and in 1895 it was extended to all school districts. In 1903, legal provision was made for youths living in districts without high schools to attend one in some other district and to have their tuition paid by the district where their home was located. By 1936, there were 1,244 high schools in Pennsylvania.

In 1911 a revised School Code was enacted. In addition to codifying existing laws, it made the following changes: 1. Gradation of school districts into four classes according to population. 2. Establishment of a 6-member State Board of Education to oversee the system and equalize education throughout the different parts of the State. 3. Making qualifications for varying types of certificates and attaching minimum salaries to each. 4. Classifying high schools. 5. Beginning the Board of Education's purchase of the state normal schools. 6. Increasing DPI staff concerned with high school development.

In 1917 the Public School Employes' Retirement Fund was established. After World War I, the leadership of Superintendent Thomas E. Finegan led to further changes, known as the "Finegan reforms." Previously, the Department had three bureaus: Vocational Education, Professional Education, and Medical Education and Licensure. Dr. Finegan made ten: Administration, Attendance, Health Education, Pre-professional and Professional Credentials, Rural Education, School Buildings, School Employes' Retirement, Special Education, Certification and Training of Teachers, and Vocational Education. Also under Finegan's leadership the comprehensive Edmonds Act of 1921 was passed. It provided a legal and financial basis for sweeping changes. Its formula for subsidizing school districts with state funds lasted until 1945: the class of a school district, the division of organization, and the grade of teaching certificate were made the three bases for state subsidies to districts. The Edmonds Act also abolished the Board of Education, replacing it with the State Council of Education which took the powers of its predecessor and also absorbed the old College and University Council. The new Council was intended to correlated all educational policy at the state level.

The Edmonds Act also attacked low teacher standards, both by its subsidy provisions and by ending county superintendents' role in certification; all training and certification was now in the hands of the State. With this act junior high schools became an official designation and the State Council acquired the power to prescribe the high school curriculum. In many other ways the Edmonds Act imposed state control over the local operations of schools.

Further control through finances was achieved by the Administrative Code of 1923. Another statute provided transportation subsidies to districts on the basis of their wealth. In 1925, extension schools became part of public education, and state subsidies were approved for districts operating classes for physically and mentally handicapped children. A Division of Kindergarten and Elementary Education was added to the DPI, and in 1931 kindergartens became part of the school system.

The 1930s was a period of extreme austerity in public education, and it was followed immediately by the heavy commitments of State resources to waging World War II. Increasing federal aid only partially helped to offset the impact of austerity on the educational system. Minimum teachers salaries faced public criticism during periods of general unemployment, and school district consolidation was advocated by many. In 1937, the legislature created county boards of school directors empowered to merge and reorganize districts, although few consolidations actually followed. In the same year, a public school teachers' tenure act was passed.

Following World War II, there was renewed emphasis on upgrading public education. The Hare-Lee-Sollenberger Act of 1945 rearranged state aid to the districts. The State set a figure as the basic amount to educate a room full of students (30 elementary or 22 secondary): $1,800 in 1945 and gradually increasing later. The State guaranteed that each district that met DPI standards would have at least that much to spend, but the percent of this coming from State funds varied inversely with the taxable real property wealth of the district. Thus, poor districts were heavily subsidized by State funds; wealthy districts largely paid for their own schools. In 1947, a State Tax Equalization Board was created to determine the wealth of school districts, placing responsibility for this controversial formula outside the DPI. In the same year, the State Public School Building Authority was created to help districts meet the cost of construction. Another 1947 statute mandated that county districting plans be reorganized, a measure intended to eliminate large numbers of small districts, but it was not until an act of 1951 gave attractive subsidies to districts if they merged that consolidation began to make real headway. In 1949, the legislature summarized existing laws by the passage of the School Code of 1949. This replaced the School Code of 1911 and, as now amended, remains the basic authority governing public education.

Special education in terms of alternative measures to instruct children with learning problems had been recognized in DPI's organization in 1922, by the establishment of a bureau with that designation. In 1951, special education programs were enlarged to include speech and hearing centers, and a day care center for training mentally retarded children was opened. Emphasis increased after 1951. In 1961, the General Assembly also mandated that the Department also establish programs for exceptional children, and these too were administered under the Special Education unit.

Also in 1951, a Bureau of Higher Education was created in the Department, recognizing the post-Wold War II interest in public support of education at the collegiate levels.

In 1915, the impact of motion pictures had caused the General Assembly to create an independent Board of Censors with the power to review for approval all cinema presentations. The Administrative Code of 1923 placed this unit under the DPI. In 1956 it was abolished because the State Supreme Court declared it unconstitutional.

In 1961, sweeping organizational reforms were passed (Act 561), that would have quickly eliminated numerous small school districts, but this program was repealed in 1963 and replaced by more moderate legislation working toward the same goal. The Bureau of School District Reorganization reduced the 2,056 districts with which it began to 742 by 1967, and to 501 by 1988. The new units maximized administrative efficiency.

1963 legislation also abolished the State Council on Education and created a new State Board of Education, a much more powerful group. The new body was divided into two seven-member councils, one for Basic Education and one for Higher Education. In addition, three members served at large. Policy decisions arrived at by either council were only activated when approved by vote of the entire board.

The DPI administered the many boards responsible for professional licensing, until the entire group was transferred to the Department of State in 1963. These included: 1. The Medical Council created in 1893 and its 1911 successor, the State Board of Medical Education and Licensure. 2. The Board of Osteopathic Examiners, created 1909. 3. The Board of Chiropody Examiners, created 1914. 4. The Board of Optometrical Education, Examination and Licensure, created in 1917, which in 1923 became the Board of Optometrical Examiners. 5. The Board of Examiners for Registration of Nurses, created 1909. 6. The Board of Veterinary Medical Examiners, created 1895. 7. The Dental Council, created in 1897, which became the Dental Council and Examining Board in 1923. 8. The Board of Pharmacy, created 1887. 9. The State Board of Funeral Directors, created in 1895 (transferred to the Department of Health in 1935, but returned to DPI in 1959). 10. The Board of Examiners of Architects, created 1919. 11. The Board of Examiners of Public Accountants, created 1899.

Although Governor George Wolf in 1833 had advocated adopting of the Swiss Fellenberg system of manual labor and study, and Governor John F. Hartranft (1873-1879) had advocated industrial schools, real progress in vocational education at the public secondary school level did not occur until the twentieth century. The founding of Farmers' High School of Pennsylvania, forerunner of The Pennsylvania State University, in 1855 (first classes in 1859) involved, despite the term "high school," a very rigorous four year course in natural sciences, and in 1862 the name was changed to Farmers' College. Courses in general agriculture existed in some public schools before 1900, but experts on agriculture, mechanical drawing, and industrial education, called vocational education advisers, were added to the DPI staff after 1911. The Showalter Act of 1913 set up statewide vocational programs for agricultural and industrial instruction. By the 1920s, courses in industrial trades as well as agriculture were found in many high schools. Vocational Education rose to be a bureau level unit of the DPI. In 1917, the Federal Smith-HughesAct brought Pennsylvania funds for skilled trades, handicrafts, and agriculture.

Cooperation of the DPI with the Department of Labor and Industry's Bureau of Rehabilitation had existed since the 1920s. In 1945, the General Assembly formally created the State Board for Vocational Education and specified that it was also the State Board of Vocational Rehabilitation. However, the new Board provided vocational education only for those needing rehabilitation. The federal government's National Defense Education Act, in 1958, was the beginning of a new emphasis on education throughout the country characterized by large entitlement grants. These sent funds from Washington D.C. to Pennsylvania. The State's Vocational Education Act of 1963 began the move that established separate Vo-Tech high schools all across Pennsylvania. The community college movement also emphasized vocational education. Both received much support from federal funds.

From the passage of the Administrative Code of 1923 until the present the Department (of Public Instruction -- later of Education) has controlled the State Library function. The Library itself traces its original collection to 1745, when the Colonial Assembly authorized Benjamin Franklin to purchase a copy of the best edition of the English statutes for their use. An Act of 1816 brought together libraries of the Senate and the House of Representatives as a single library and provided for the position of a librarian under a committee of the General Assembly. In 1854 new legislation made the position of State Librarian a gubernatorial appointment for three year terms, and one requiring him to make an annual report to the legislature on the status of books and moneys. In 1893, a library structure, which also served as a museum, was built adjacent to the Capitol. In 1919, a statute determined the powers and duties of the State Library and Museum, dividing its functions under four headings: 1. General Library, 2. Law Library, 3. Public Records (the origin of the current State Archives), and 4. Library Extension. This Library Extension was the beginning of what has become a complete libraries system for the State. In 1994, the executive directing the State Libraries system was made a Commissioner of the Department of Education, and the title of State Librarian fell into disuse.

The Pennsylvania Historical Commission, created by statute in 1913, also was placed under the administrative control of the Superintendent of Public Instruction by the Administrative Code of 1923. (See RG-13, Records of the Historical and Museum Commission.) A number of properties of historic significance were acquired between 1931 and 1945 and were administered under DPI's Bureau of School Administration. With federal WPA support, some were then restored, refurbished, and eventually opened to the public. In 1945, the statute creating the Historical and Museum Commission as an independent agency took the archives, museum, and historical functions away from the DPI.

Major administrative reorganization occurred in 1966. The Board's bifurcation between Basic Education and Higher Education was reflected in the creation of two commissioners, one for each of the two functions. The Commissioner for Basic Education controlled schools subsidies, school building standards, student attendance, and curriculum guidelines. The Commissioner for Higher Education administered community colleges (which were inaugurated in 1964), the state owned colleges, programs for teacher education, and the budgets for state-owned, state-aided, and state-related institutions of higher education. In addition, the new organization involved a permanent position of Assistant Superintendent (later Assistant Secretary of Education) who controlled bureaus concerned with legislative services, federal programs, career development, and publications. In 1994, the position of Commissioner of State Libraries was created, replacing the title of State Librarian, and placed at a level equal to the Commissioners of Basic Education and of Higher Education.

In 1969, the designation Public Instruction was dropped and the agency became the Department of Education. The title Superintendent of Public Instruction was abolished and the agency's director was designated Secretary of Education.

In 1971, the General Assembly established twenty-nine regional educational service agencies, called Intermediate Units, empowered to provide expensive, sophisticated ancillary services to the local districts. Financed largely by the State's general operating funds, the Intermediate Units receive some funding from the districts. They are governed by boards drawn from the elected district school boards.

In 1982 the creation of an independent agency, the State System of Higher Education, removed the fourteen State owned colleges (formerly designated state normal schools, then state teachers colleges, and today state universities) from the control of the Commissioner of Higher Education (now Post Secondary and Higher Education). The Commissioner's office, however, still directs the evaluation of higher education programs and teacher preparation and certification. In 1985 teacher-certification testing became mandatory, and in 1986 professional development standards were imposed on teachers not pursuing professionally related master's degrees.

By 1950 the Department was assisted by advisory boards for private academic schools, private trade schools, and private correspondence schools. Today there are boards for private licensed schools and private academic schools, from which a Board of Private Schools is chosen. The Board of Private Licensed Schools, which is concerned with post-secondary trade and business education, has a small administrative unit within the Department, and there is also a Division of Non-public and Private School Services.

PA State Archives Hours, Directions, & Fees Research Topics Finding Aids for Collections Land Records