| This historical dissertation seeks to address the paucity of knowledge that currently exists about Tennessee's public school finance system from 1806--1861. Specifically, this study aims to fill part of this void by providing a two-part narrative of the issues related to public school funding in the early nineteenth century. The first portion of the narrative focuses on the viewpoint of the formal governmental actors; the second illuminates the citizens' perspectives, both of which are important in understanding the establishment of Tennessee public education. The analysis is accomplished by first describing and interpreting the official school finance federal and state legislations made from 1806--1861. Findings reveal that the state encountered many problems, such as weak administration and mismanagement of school funds, as they attempted to establish a system of public school funding. These issues eventually resulted in the complete drain of public school revenue causing all of Tennessee's first public schools to close by 1860.; Concomitantly, the citizens' opinions are interpreted from 161 never-before examined citizens' legislative petitions sent to the General Assembly from across the state during this 55-year time span. Findings reveal five strong themes of the citizens' value for a public education system, effective state school funding mechanisms, school finance equity, local control of leadership and school revenue, and adequate conditions for teaching and learning in the early nineteenth century. Finally, both sets of perspectives are compared and contrasted to determine the degree of congruence between Tennessee's formal governmental actors and its citizens during 1806--1861. The degree of congruence between both perspectives poses several interesting implications discussed in the final chapter, with the highest degree of congruence found to be the desire for a public education. |
