The reasons for this action are not clear from the journals, but they are said to have been of a political character.[1]
In the fight which followed the superintendency won out; the office was not abolished, but it was shorn of its powers. The superintendent was no longer required to visit the counties and supervise the schools; his allowance for traveling and office expenses and for printing blanks was cut off, and any chance for a general supervision of the schools of the Territory was cut off.
McCrea, in reviewing the situation, remarks that—
All idea of making the superintendent of any signal service to the schools was abandoned, and from this time on no superintendent of public instruction in Arizona has been chosen from the ranks of those actually engaged in teaching, though three out of six have had experience as teachers.[2]
The new board of education appointed in 1887, none of whom were teachers, also began to get in its work; it amended (1887) the rules and regulations for the government of the schools of the Territory, and its amendments were not always for the best. Some of the old teaching certificates revoked by the former administration were now regranted, and a rule was adopted that practically abandoned corporal punishment. This caused great dissatisfaction among the teachers and was modified in 1890, so that the penalties of the law applied only to those who inflicted excessive or cruel punishment. Still more unsatisfactory was the dropping of the course of study from the requirements. The schools went back to the old system where each teacher worked out a course for himself. It is true that there was still an adopted series of textbooks, but with no fixed course of study it was impossible to make the classes uniform, and no other course was prepared until Long again became superintendent in 1899–1900.
This reaction against the schools in 1887 was doubtless due to the irritation of the people arising in part from causes other than educational. The governor points out in his message of 1887 that the assembly for some years had been wasteful and had been spending more money than had been allowed by Congress. A debt of $336,817 had been contracted in eight years for roads, bridges, and legislative expenses. Much of this money had been wasted or actually stolen in building the penitentiary and the insane asylum. Says McCrea:
The people were becoming restive under the great burdens of taxation and the wasteful and corrupt management of affairs. In seeking relief they had already begun to retrench on money spent for schools. This is hardly to be wondered at, as salaries and expenses of school officials had wonderfully increased, while the improvement of the schools was not so apparent.[3]
On the legislative side the situation in 1889 was a period of calm
