Arch Ford, former Arkansas education commissioner
Progress in education has been an important feature of the development of the United States. Arkansas especially faced a difficult transition as it attempted to develop its school system in the 20th century. One of the key leaders in Arkansas education was Arch Ford, the former state education commissioner.
Archibald Washington Ford was born in the small Faulkner County community of Wooster in 1906. The importance of education was emphasized to him at an early age. His father, the Rev. Thomas Noah Ford, was a Baptist minister, farmer, and a leader in public education in the area. He served on the Wooster School Board and later on the Faulkner County Board of Education.
In the early 1900s, most Arkansas communities had schools of some type. However, the quality differed widely among the thousands of school districts spread across the state’s 75 counties. In 1900, there were still no compulsory school attendance laws, few standards for teachers, school terms in many districts were only four months, and many communities only had oneroom schools educating children of all ages at different grade levels because of a lack of resources. Most school districts did not offer any education past the eighth grade.
Though Arkansas was an agricultural state, and the labor of children was seen as necessary on the farms, the education system in Arkansas was far behind other farming states. In addition, schools were segregated, increasing costs for districts. As a child, Ford was sent to a local tworoom school that had only a six-month term.
The family moved briefly to Oklahoma when Ford was 13, where he was able to attend a full nine-month term. The family returned to Wooster when he was 15, and he had to attend the high school 10 miles away in Conway, the only high school in Faulkner County at the time.
In the meantime, his father worked on the county school board to consolidate the patchwork of dozens upon dozens of school districts in the county down to just seven. Upon graduation, Ford attended Arkansas State Teachers School in Conway (the modern University of Central Arkansas).
After graduation, he attended the University of Arkansas where he received a master’s degree in vocational education. He spent the next several years as a teacher. In 1935, he began working with the Civilian Conservation Corps managing the education programs offered to its participants.
He began working for the Arkansas Department of Education in 1941, supervising vocational education and business education programs. In 1953, Ford became the state commissioner, supervising education programs and teacher training for all districts.
In 1954, the Supreme Court ruled that segregation was unconstitutional in the Brown v. Board of Education case. Ford recognized the implications for Arkansas, and he began quietly crafting policies to comply. However, he was limited as to what he could do as desegregation faced volatile opposition in many communities. Desegregation lawsuits caused many districts to be placed under supervision of federal courts.
Nevertheless, he assisted districts in adjusting to their constitutional responsibilities regarding equality, providing policy and training. His efforts went far beyond the traditional student. He began programs to provide education to disabled students, which spread throughout the entire state by the late 1970s. He worked with legislators and campaigned for a constitutional amendment in 1968 to allow state educational funds to allow 5-year-olds (for kindergarten) and residents over 18 access to public school programs.
In the 1960s and 1970s, recognizing that many students needed job skills beyond high school, he worked with legislators to create 23 vocational schools across the state, offering such programs as welding, carpentry, automotive repair, and even nursing. Many of these vocational education programs have since been absorbed by local community colleges, who provide these opportunities for skilled trades and workforce training. He further advocated teacher pay raises and funding for education television. Ford’s efforts were helped by many legislators, teachers, and governors in his long career who shared his passion for education.
In 1969, Gov. Winthrop Rockefeller had one of the newly refurbished buildings in the Capitol complex renamed for Ford in honor of his work for Arkansas schools. The building, down the hill from the Capitol, had originally been erected in the 1930s under the administration of Gov. Carl Bailey to house state administrative offices.
The Arch Ford Annex houses many state educational offices today. In 1978, he stepped down from his position after 25 years as state education commissioner. He died in 1987 at the age of 81, lauded by educators across the state for his service and was further honored with the dedication of the Arch Ford Education Service Cooperative in Plumerville to aid in teacher training. Ford became synonymous with public education in Arkansas in a long and distinguished career, one that improved the lives of thousands of students.
(Dr. Ken Bridges is a professor of history and geography at South Arkansas Community College in El Dorado and a resident historian for the South Arkansas Historical Preservation Society. Bridges can be reached by e-mail at kbridges@southark.edu).