Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/54552
120 Years of AEA, cont. from page 20 elimination of public education because it "cost too much." By 1887, the Territorial Legislature passed a series of anti-education laws that se- verely limited the role that teachers and others in public education could play in society. These new laws prohibited teachers from serving on the County Boards of Examiners, which was the body that granted teaching certificates then; set a cap on teachers' salaries; made the superintendent of public instruc- tion a virtual figurehead with only a nominal salary, which made the position inconsistent and unstable; and required teachers to attend "institutes" similar in intent to today's in-service trainings. These laws became extremely unpopular among teachers, especially the state-man- dated institutes. However, the newly formed Association took advantage of this opportu- nity to meet following the institutes and work together on advancing public education and pushing pro-education legislative policy. Not only did the Arizona Territorial Teachers' Association deal with the textbook problem and these new laws, they also worked to increase standards, raise compulsory attendance for children from 6 to 12 years, pay teachers for the time and mileage to attend the mandatory institutes, establish a reform school, and lob- bied for the creation of a continuing legislative committee. Father of Arizona Public Schools Territorial Governor Anson Peaceley-Killen Safford was passionate about public education and worked for two years to pass the Public School Act, which would establish a new property tax to fund the creation and operation of public schools. On February 17, 1871, the Territorial Legislative Assembly passed Safford's bill; however, the legislators took all the funding to support it. Governor Safford must have anticipated this because he wrote a $500 travel fund, which the legislators somehow missed, for the Superintendent of Public Instruction for the purpose of estab- lishing these new schools. Safford also wrote in the bill that he himself should serve in this role, making him Arizona's first state superintendent of schools. The Public School Act provided local school districts with the power to tax themselves to fund their schools, so for the next six years Safford visited every settlement in the Arizona Territory on his mule to convince communities about the im- portance of public education. It wasn't until 1872 that the first public school was built in Tucson, but by 1877, about half of the nearly 3,000 children could read and write, and by 1900, there were 32 schools in the Arizona Territory employing 169 teachers. Safford's one-man crusade and dedication to establish Arizona's public school system earned him the nickname the "Father of Arizona Public Schools." 20 Spring 2012 x AEA Advocate Territorial Governor Anson Peaceley-Killen Safford