Today marks the 185th anniversary of the first public school opening in North Carolina.

The North Carolina General Assembly’s Common Law of 1839 allowed for each county in the state to hold a vote to determine whether a school tax should be collected from residents.

According to this law, if the vote passed, the state’s Literary Fund would provide $2 for every $1 the county raised. (This established the practice of funding education through a combination of local and state funding which we still follow today.)

The new law also created between 5-10 “superintendents” in each county to lead the schools, a structure which would later become local boards of education.

In elections held in late 1839, 61 of North Carolina’s 68 counties approved the tax. Notice of the first school opening in Rockingham County appeared first in the February 18, 1840 Greensborough Patriot and was reprinted later that month in the Raleigh Standard. 

By 1846 every county in North Carolina had at least one public school.

Today North Carolina’s 115 school districts are home to more than 2,500 public schools which serve more than 1.3 million students.

Happy birthday North Carolina public schools! 🎂

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Hat tip to EdNC’s Mebane Rash for schooling me on the historical significance of this day.