Virginia Schools in the Great Depression

Introduction

What impact did the Great Depression have on Virginia public schools? How can these local examples contribute to understanding the history of the Great Depression?

While the start of the Great Depression is usually dated from October 1929, when "Black Friday" began the stock market crash, the full impact of the economic crisis reached American communities over the next several years.

Historical Context

The Great Depression is most easily understood as a sequence of causes and effects. The sudden fall in stock prices led to the collapse of banks and decreasing demand for goods and services. These declines in demand led businesses to reduce their production, which meant cuts in jobs, lower salaries and wages, and companies that went out of business. As the economy weakened, individuals and corporations paid less in taxes, and government revenues declined as well. For schools, the decrease in tax revenue at the local and state level meant less money to pay for services such as teachers' salaries, textbooks, heating fuel, transportation, and other school supplies.

Across the United States, the impact of the Depression was visible in the public schools. According to a report published in late 1933, approximately one-quarter of children attended schools where the length of the term was one-half of the designated period. Teachers' salaries had been reduced in almost all urban and rural districts across the country. Thousands of teachers were unemployed, while many others worked on a voluntary basis, enabling schools to remain open beyond the time funded by school budgets.

At the same time as schools dealt with this funding crisis, schools were being tested in other ways by the Depression. For many older pupils, who might have left school for jobs in manufacturing, farming, or commerce, the rising rates of unemployment of adults meant that leaving school was less attractive. At the same time, the costs to families of keeping children in school, especially in conditions where fathers and mothers were also out of work, meant that even low paying jobs were seen as vital to the family's welfare. Finally, a growing population of school-age children born during the years of propserity in the 1920s meant that schools, especially in the early 1930s, were facing increased demand for services at a time when their resources were being cut. These conditions, in combination with the economic crisis more generally, contributed to the perceptions of a crisis in schools.

Concerns about the impact of the Depression on public schools were articulated by numerous participants and educators. In January 1933, just two months before leaving office, President Herbert Hoover declared: "There is no safety for our Republic without the education of our youth. That is the first charge upon all citizens and local governments ... the proper care and training of our children is more important than any other process that is carried on by our Government." Shortly after taking office, President Franklin Roosevelt connected the crisis in schools to the broader challenges facing American youth in his statement: [?]

Similar expressions of concern were expressed by leaders of American education, including the National Education Association, which formed an Emergency Commission to deal with the widespread concerns about the effects of the economic crisis. At the state level, the Virginia Education Association (which represented white teachers and school administrators) and the Virginia Teachers' Association (which represented negro teachers and school administrators) echoed similar expressions of concern about the effects of the Depression on schools, teachers, and American youth. Finally, newspaper articles reported public expresions on these concerns by teachers, parents, and civic organizations, while editorials and letters to editors amplified these concerns by suggesting the direct effects on children of the economic crisis.

The materials in this lesson plan provide different perspectives on the question of how the Great Depression affected the lives of Virginians, using the example of public schools as a case study of causes and consequences. These materials demonstrate how Virginians, including school adminstrators, teachers, parents, pupils, local government officials, and the general public thought about education in a time of crisis. Because all of these sources were written at the time, they provide a first-hand account of what it meant to be facing this direct challenge to the meaning of schooling in a democracy.