Public Education in Garland

Duane's take

Here's my telling of what the official marker says about public education in Garland, Texas — and friend, this is a story that spans a hundred years and about fifty thousand reasons why it matters. It starts, as so many Texas stories do, out in the country. A little rural school called Duck Creek.

That's your seed. When the community of Garland took root in 1887, the first school opened right along with it — students and teachers crowding into temporary space, making do, the way Texans do. Three years after that, they finally put up a permanent building.

And they called it Garland College, which sounds grander than it was, because here's the thing — it was a subscription school. You wanted your child educated, you paid tuition. Simple as that.

Now, the people of Garland looked at that arrangement for a while, and somewhere around the turn of the century, they decided they wanted something more. In 1901, Garland voters chose to incorporate as an independent school district. That move gave them the authority to levy taxes for school improvements — real money, real commitment.

The first classes under that new district opened in September of 1901, right there in the old Garland College building, with one hundred and thirty students walking through the door. One hundred and thirty. Hold onto that number.

We're coming back to it. The years rolled on. Interscholastic football arrived in 1906 — and if you know anything about Texas, you know that was not a small event.

The first parent-teacher association formed in 1922. Facilities got remodeled, expanded, pushed outward as the population kept growin'. The rural schools that had been scattered across the surrounding countryside, schools like Duck Creek had once been, consolidated into the Garland district one by one as the area grew more urban.

But here is the part of this story that deserves to be told straight and without flinching. In 1922 to 1923, Garland ISD opened its first school for African-American children. It was called Carver School, and it served students in grades one through eight.

High school students — children who had earned the right to keep learning — had to travel all the way to Dallas to complete their education. That is what the system required of them. Integration of the schools began in 1964, and it was completed by 1970.

Those are the facts, and they carry their own weight. Now — that number I asked you to hold. One hundred and thirty students in 1901, in a six-room building.

By the time Garland's first hundred years of public education had run their course, the district had grown to more than sixty campuses, with an enrollment of approximately fifty-one thousand students. From one hundred and thirty to fifty-one thousand. From a subscription school on the edge of a new community to sixty campuses in a city that had grown up around them.

That, right there, is what a hundred years of showing up looks like.

What the marker says

With origins in the rural Duck Creek School, the first school in Garland opened soon after the community's establishment in 1887. Students and teachers met in temporary space until the first permanent building was erected three years later. Garland College, as the school was known, was a subscription school, charging tuition for its educational services. In 1901, Garland voters elected to incorporate as an independent school district, which gave them authority to levy taxes for school improvements. The first classes began in September 1901 in the Garland College building with an enrollment of 130 students. Interscholastic football was introduced in 1906, and the first parent- teacher association formed in 1922. Facilities were remodeled and expanded over the years as needed to accommodate a growing population. Garland ISD opened its first school for African- American children in 1922-23. Carver School served students in grades one through eight; high school students had to travel to Dallas to complete their education. Integration of the schools began in 1964 and was completed by 1970. As the Garland area became more urban, the neighboring rural schools consolidated with the Garland school district. In its first 100 years, public education in Garland grew from a six-room building with enrollment of 130 pupils in 1901 to more than 60 campuses with an enrollment of approximately 51,000 students. (2001)