AUSTIN – With the stroke of a pen, the future of Texas changed forever 150 years ago. Education moved from being the privilege of the wealthy few to the right of all Texas children.

The Texas Legislature, at the urging of Gov. Elisha Pease, enacted the Common School Law of 1854 on Jan. 31, providing, for the first time, state funding for public schools. The law also set aside $2 million from a $10 million land settlement with the United State government to create a fund now known as the Permanent School Fund. Today that Fund is worth $18 billion and is the second largest educational endowment in the country.

The Texas Education Agency and many of the state’s education associations will mark this 150th anniversary with special events and celebrations throughout 2004.

A historical exhibit called Remembering the Past, Building the Future: Celebrating the first 150 years of Texas Public Schools, is on display at the Texas Education Agency’s headquarters at 1701 N. Congress Ave. in Austin through April 16. This exhibit features historic photographs and documents that chronicle the development of public schools.

One of the photographs on display features Lyndon Baines Johnson and his fellow classmates at Johnson City High School in 1924. Johnson, who is the only graduate of a Texas high school to serve as the U.S. president, autographed this class photo in 1960 when he was Senate majority leader and soon to be a candidate for vice president.

The exhibit also recalls the worst tragedy in Texas school history, the 1937 New London School explosion, which resulted in the death of 298 students and teachers. That tragic event led to the state requirement that a foul smell be placed in the otherwise odorless natural gas to prevent any future tragedies such as this one.

Much of the exhibit chronicles every day school life during the past 150 years. McGuffey’s eclectic primer, which is a series of early reading books; class photographs that show barefoot students; and photos of classroom scenes depict Texas schools.

A sample of the photos on exhibit can be viewed at the bottom of this press release on the TEA website at: http://www.tea.state.tx.us/comm/page1.html. These three photos were made available to the exhibit courtesy of the Billy W. Sills Center for Archives of the Fort Worth Independent School District, the Texas State Teachers Association and East Central ISD.

The history exhibit is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday through Friday and is free and open to the public.

A smaller subset of the exhibit at TEA is traveling the state and will be on view at various education conferences throughout the year. This exhibit will next be on display at the Texas Partners in Education State Conference, Feb. 5-6, at Galveston’s San Luis Conference Center at 5222 Seawall Blvd. It will then be on display at the Texas School Public Relations Association Conference, Feb.18-19, at Austin’s Hyatt Regency Hotel, 208 Barton Springs Rd. This exhibit debuted earlier this week at the Texas Association of School Administrators’ Midwinter Conference in Austin.

A website, www.texed150.com, has also been created for the anniversary by the Texas Education 150 Committee, composed of many education associations. The website was designed by staff at the Texas Retired Teachers Association and Texas Association of School Administrators. The official anniversary logo, created by the Texas School Public Relations Association, and other information, such as a timeline of education developments, are available on the website. Information about future anniversary events will be posted there.

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