In his report to the Commissioner of Education in 1876, Gov. Safford said:[1]
Upon assuming the duties of the office of governor in the year 1869 I found that several previous legislatures had enacted school laws, but in none had any positive provisions been made to sustain public schools, it having been left optional with school-board trustees and county boards of supervisors to levy a school tax or not. The result was that no means were provided and no schools were organized. I saw clearly that the first and most important measure to adopt was to provide the means by making the tax compulsory and as certain as the revenue for carrying on the machinery of government. I at once, after assuming the duties of my office, began to agitate the subject. The first legislature convened in 1871. I prepared a school bill and presented it to the members as soon as they assembled.
Gov. Safford emphasized and made clear to the legislature his position when he said in his message:
Next in importance to the Indian question, none will claim your attention over that of devising some plan for the education of the youth of our Territory. The recent census returns show a population of children, under the age of 21 and over 6 years, of 1,923, and the mortifying fact has to be admitted that we have not a public school in the Territory. There is, and has been for some time, a school in Prescott under the management of S. C. Rogers, and much credit is due that gentleman for his zeal and efforts to encourage education. The Sisters of St. Joseph have recently established a school in Tucson for the education of females, and too much praise can not be accorded them for leaving home and its surrounding comforts and coming to this remote Territory to promote education. With limited means and in a strange land they have overcome every obstacle, and in a few months established a school creditable to any country, and which is already attended by about 130 pupils.
But the object most desirable to attain is the adoption of a school system for free public schools, so that the poor and rich alike can share equal benefits. In a country like ours, where the power to govern is derived from the consent, of the governed, it becomes a matter of vital importance and necessity, if we are to protect and make permanent our republican institutions, that the people shall be educated. Not only this, but history records the fact that the power and glory of nations and peoples keep pace only with their enlightenment and intelligence. * * *
I am of the opinion that our Government should adopt a system of free schools for the whole people, and that, as soon as it were put in operation, it should by law compel the attendance of every child of sound mind and proper age throughout the length and breadth of the Republic. * * *
I consider it imperatively necessary that we shall do something for ourselves.
The present school law has been found inadequate to accomplish the desired object; in fact, it has been wholly inoperative. To obtain the means to put a free school system in operation I would recommend that a portion of the Territorial revenues be set apart for school purposes, and that this fund be divided between the several counties of the Territory in proportion to the number of children that attend school. The boards of supervisors of the several counties should be compelled to divide the counties into one or more school districts, and levy a tax upon all the property of the county to raise a sufficient fund, with the money derived from the Territory, to maintain, for a term of- ↑ Rept. U. S. Commis. of Educ., 1876, pp. 431–433.
