Man of Vision: Arkansas Education and the Legacy of Arch Ford

by Cindy Burnett Beckman

Overview

As commissioner of the Arkansas Department of Education from 1953 to 1978, Arch Ford served under five governors. His vision was to expand educational opportunities because he believed education was the foundation for improving people’s lives. Throughout his career, he campaigned for increased educational funding, better-qualified teachers, and higher teachers’ salaries. Ford helped lead the state in peacefully integrating its schools and established twenty-three vocational-technical schools across the state. During Ford’s tenure, the Arkansas Children’s Colony was established to provide educational services to the developmentally disabled, and the Arkansas Educational Television Network was set up to provide instructional programming across the state.

The state also expanded educational opportunities to include kindergarten, special education, community colleges, and adult education. His leadership left Arkansas with a strong educational system that continued to advance. This was his legacy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781935106197
Publisher:	Butler Center for Arkansas Studies
Publication date:	08/01/2016
Edition description:	1
Pages:	186
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.70(d)

About the Author

Cindy Burnett Beckman was a classroom teacher in Conway for thirty years and holds a master of arts in history from the University of Central Arkansas. In 2001, Beckman was named the national Junior Achievement Economics Teacher of the Year. She writes a local history column called “A Look Back” for the Log Cabin Democrat newspaper and is a member of the Faulkner County Historical Society. She is the author of A Taste of Arkansas: Restaurants of Conway, Faulkner, Perry, Pope and Yell Counties and By the Forks of the Cadron: Living in a Place CalledPleasant Valley.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements 9

Preface 10

Ch. 1 The Early Years 13

Ch. 2 Civilian Conservation Corps 27

Ch. 3 Arkansas Department of Education 33

Ch. 4 Financing Education in Arkansas: The Perennial Problem 51

Ch. 5 Improving the Quality of Arkansas Education 63

Ch. 6 Desegregating Arkansas's Public Schools 79

Ch. 7 The Birth of Vocational-Technical Schools 97

Ch. 8 The Communist Threat and Economic Education 115

Ch. 9 Educational Television in Arkansas 133

Ch. 10 Educating Children with Disabilities 145

Ch. 11 Public Kindergarten 161

Ch. 12 Textbooks and Fire Protection 170

Ch. 13 The Ford Family Legacy Continues 176

Ch. 14 Other Legacies of Arch Ford 184

Ch. 15 The Retirement Years 190

Ch. 16 The Legacy Lives On 197

Notes 201

Bibliography 218

Index 235

About the Author 244