Beckner’s legacy shaped Kentucky public education

Last week, Bobbi Newell gave an excel­lent talk on Judge William M. Beckner at Holly Rood. Judge Beckner played such an influ­en­tial role in Winchester that I thought his sto­ry deserved to be in print for read­ers, espe­cial­ly his role in advanc­ing pub­lic edu­ca­tion in Kentucky.

William Morgan Beckner (1841−1910) began acquir­ing his edu­ca­tion cre­den­tials as soon as he came to Winchester at the close of the Civil War. He estab­lished a school for boys in the old Seminary (which lat­er became Hickman Street School), then served a term as prin­ci­pal of the Winchester pub­lic schools. 

A glow­ing obit­u­ary in the news­pa­per he found­ed stat­ed, “He advo­cat­ed for bet­ter schools, bet­ter roads, bet­ter streets, turn­pikes and rail­roads, and pub­lic improve­ments of all kinds.  He was not afraid of increased tax­a­tion if the com­mu­ni­ty secured cor­re­spond­ing ben­e­fits.  He was large­ly respon­si­ble for the removal of Kentucky Wesleyan College to this city [and for acquir­ing a grant to erect a Carnegie Library on its cam­pus].  Much of the most pro­gres­sive school leg­is­la­tion of the State was due to his influence.” 

Beckner fol­lowed his beliefs with action.  “Judge Beckner was by nature a leader of men.  What he believed was right he advo­cat­ed with all his might whether or not it was pop­u­lar at the time.”  This was espe­cial­ly true regard­ing pub­lic edu­ca­tion.  Here Beckner left his most endur­ing mark, and the prin­ci­ples he fought for are still rel­e­vant in Kentucky today.

Kentucky’s poor coun­ties had woe­ful pub­lic schools for years.  This injus­tice to Kentucky school chil­dren result­ed in a 1985 law­suit, Council for Better Education et al. v. Martha Layne Collins, Governor, et al.  Former gov­er­nor Bert Combs and his legal team argued that the poor­er coun­ties of Kentucky could not pro­vide an ade­quate edu­ca­tion for their chil­dren because of an insuf­fi­cient local tax base com­pared with wealth­i­er coun­ties. Statements such as “48 per­cent in this coun­ty [Owsley] can’t even read” were undis­put­ed by the defense.  Judge Ray Corns heard the case, and his opin­ion declared Kentucky’s entire sys­tem of school finance uncon­sti­tu­tion­al.  The state’s wide­ly pub­li­cized Education Reform Act of 1990 (known as KERA) result­ed from the court’s sweep­ing mandate.

So what does the Kentucky Constitution say about edu­ca­tion?  Section 183 requires that “The General Assembly shall, by appro­pri­ate leg­is­la­tion, pro­vide for an effi­cient sys­tem of com­mon schools through­out the State.”  Both courts cit­ed this clause as the basis for throw­ing out the exist­ing edu­ca­tion frame­work.  And this clause was the work of William M. Beckner, Clark County’s rep­re­sen­ta­tive to the Constitutional Convention of 1890.

Beckner was born in Moorefield, a small town in Nicholas County, and attend­ed neigh­bor­hood schools, an acad­e­my in Maysville, and Centre College.  Leaving col­lege after five months due to lack of funds, he taught school while read­ing law in Maysville.  Beckner set­tled in Winchester in 1865 and was soon elect­ed Police Judge.  In 1866 he was County Attorney, four years lat­er County Judge, in 1880 State Prison Commissioner, and in 1882 State Railroad Commissioner.  In 1893, he served in the General Assembly and a year lat­er was elect­ed to the U.S. House of Representatives.

Beckner’s pas­sion­ate belief in the val­ue of edu­ca­tion led him to reform the state’s sys­tem of com­mon schools.  Kentucky, like most of the rur­al South, had a deplorable record of edu­cat­ing its cit­i­zens.  Our first state law deal­ing with com­mon schools was not passed until 1838, and com­pli­ance was vol­un­tary.  Slight progress was made in the 1840s and 50s with the enact­ment of a small state school tax.  The Civil War dis­rupt­ed progress, as did hos­til­i­ty to local tax­a­tion, polit­i­cal infight­ing, racial ten­sions, and cit­i­zen apathy.

In the 1870s, Beckner began advo­cat­ing for bet­ter edu­ca­tion in his news­pa­per columns and even­tu­al­ly secured pas­sage of a grad­ed pub­lic school sys­tem in Winchester.  Following this, he began speak­ing out across the Commonwealth about the need for more state fund­ing for schools. Condemning the lev­el of illit­er­a­cy, he argued that “the free school has been the foun­da­tion of New England’s pow­er and greatness.” 

He urged cit­i­zens to raise local tax­es and to pro­vide ade­quate edu­ca­tion for Black chil­dren. At that time, the state had gross­ly unequal school sys­tems for White and Black children.

One of his speech­es, enti­tled “A Problem To Be Solved,” was reprint­ed in news­pa­pers across the state in 1882.  He orga­nized a state Education Convention in Frankfort in April 1883 and the Inter-State Educational Convention in Louisville that September.  These efforts result­ed in Kentucky’s Common School Act of 1884, which cre­at­ed a “uni­form sys­tem of schools,” but did noth­ing to address their inad­e­quate fund­ing. In 1889, he was invit­ed to speak at a sym­po­sium in New York City on the ques­tion, “Shall the Negro Be Educated or Suppressed?”  There, Beckner expressed “a Christian hope that prej­u­dices of the past would die, racial antag­o­nism cease, and equal rights before the law endure of ‘all races of men.’”

At the 1890 Constitutional Convention, Beckner was eas­i­ly the most wide­ly rec­og­nized advo­cate for pub­lic edu­ca­tion. He worked tire­less­ly dur­ing the 226-day con­ven­tion to advance his ideas in the Committee on Education. 

When the con­ven­tion took up debate on the committee’s report, Beckner asked if he might “say a word or two.”  He then launched into a two-hour ora­tion that tout­ed education’s “pow­er to break down class bar­ri­ers, pre­vent crime and pover­ty, enrich democ­ra­cy, and improve the gen­er­al eco­nom­ic con­di­tion of the state.”  The con­ven­tion ulti­mate­ly vot­ed to approve his committee’s six rec­om­men­da­tions on edu­ca­tion.  For his efforts, he was rec­og­nized by the oth­er del­e­gates as the leader of the “friends of edu­ca­tion” and dubbed “the Horace Mann of Kentucky.” 

Beckner had no way of fore­telling that 100 years lat­er, his Section 183 would be the jus­ti­fi­ca­tion to remake Kentucky’s edu­ca­tion system. 

In 1998, James C. Carper of the University of South Carolina pub­lished a 32-page arti­cle in the Register of the Kentucky Historical Society on William Beckner’s edu­ca­tion­al accom­plish­ments. He cred­its Beckner with mak­ing uni­ver­sal pub­lic edu­ca­tion a fixed, con­sti­tu­tion­al commitment.