Unidad de Política de Ingresos No Tributarios Objetivo

If students were obligated to attend school, what was being taught in that school became the focus of the next period of accountability in Pennsylvania’s education history? The idea that students who would attend school to prepare them for their future careers came to the forefront, just as the movement for the same emerged in the national focus. Much like the national

movement, the creation of high schools occurred simultaneously.

Initiating this movement was the great increase in population. “The population of the State rose from 2,311,786 in 1850…and reached a total of 5,255,853, in 1890. The greatest increase was in the cities” (Mulhern, 1969, p. 444). Mulhern also notes that:

While this increase represents, in part, a gradual influx from the farms to the cities, it was to a still greater extent the result of immigration from foreign countries…The

industrialization of the State…was a potent factor in the growth of great urban population centres. It is a significant social fact that, in 1887, manufacturing, mining, trade,

transportation, and ordinary fields of unskilled labor gave employment to two-thirds of those engaged in the various “occupations,” while agriculture and the professions combined accounted for the employment of the other third of our working population. (Mulhern, 1969, p. 445)

With a greater population, the need for skilled, educated labor began to emerge at a much faster rate.

As noted in the previous section of this literature review, the state legislators formally called for the creation of public schools in 1834, an idea presented much earlier in the state’s history. Yetter noted:

The laws of 1834 provided for manual training, calling it manual labor. Penn’s ‘Frame of Government’ said that an opportunity should be given the young to learn some useful art or skill. These and other suggestions probably had back of them the idea of preparing to earn a livelihood without thought of its educational value. It seems strange that so much has been said about manual training and so little done. It has been authorized by

legislative acts, urged by educational officers, and recommended by educators. The main cause is lack of popular demand for it. (Yetter, 1909, p. 74)

It is notable to mention, that after the enactment of the law of 1834, the city of Philadelphia embarked on a campaign to build a high school. “Early in 1836, a committee of the board of controllers was appointed to visit Boston and New York ‘to examine the public schools ...’ the most suitable features of which they proposed to adopt for Philadelphia. Plans for an elaborate building and observatory were soon laid” (Mulhern, 1969, p. 493). Across the state, the

establishment of secondary schools took a bit longer, but was well underway by the late 1800’s. Further enabling this development was the law of 1887.

In 1887, there was enacted a law permitting directors in ‘cities and boroughs divided into wards for school purposes’ to establish high schools. By this law directors were required to admit into the high school all duly qualified children of the district under twenty-one years of age; to ‘exercise supervision’ over the school; to appoint and dismiss teachers; to

arrange the curriculum and select all books to be used; to fix the length of the school term which must not exceed ten months in each year; and to require the city or borough

council to levy a ‘Public high school building tax’ of not more than one mill each year. (Mulhern, 1969, p. 480)

With the organization and funding defined, “There were over 100 high schools in the state by the end of the century…A law of 1901 authorized the creation of township and union high schools” (Good, 1956, p. 246). Mulhern noted the same adding, “Appropriations to the township high schools rose from $50,000 in 1901, to $275,000 in 1907” (Mulhern, 1969, p. 480). Additionally, “The earliest collection of statistical data, preserved in the State Department, which presents a fairly representative picture of the high schools of the State, is that for the year 1898. It contains information regarding two hundred and twenty-six high schools in fifty-nine

counties” (Mulhern, 1969, p. 500). However, the main issue was not the need for secondary schools but rather the organization, curriculum, and course offerings in the schools.

In 1915, the state created a Bureau of Vocational Education to assist in the oversight of the schools of the Commonwealth. When the federal government passed the Smith-Hughes Act in 1917, the Bureau of Vocational Education was made responsible for enacting the provisions of the act in the state (Mulhern, 1969, p. 486).

In what appears to be an attempt to more clearly define vocational education in the State of Pennsylvania, an act was passed in 1925 which defined it as:

‘any form of education of less than college grade, given in school or elsewhere, the purpose of which is to fit an individual to pursue effectively a recognized profitable employment, whether pursued for wages or otherwise.’ This act further defined such terms as continuation school, vocational evening class, vocational home economics, and

other like terms. It provided for the establishment of such schools in the several districts, and the reimbursement of the districts by the State for establishing and maintaining such schools (Mulhern, 1969, p. 487).

As the twentieth century began, Pennsylvania had high schools and vocational programs in place across the Commonwealth. What began as a push for students to have a place to go to school, ended as a place for students to learn skills for their future careers.