Arkansas Education

 

 

Arkansas has a diversity of educational and cultural institutions; the foremost of these, however, are located in the major cities.

Education
Although the state legislature passed an act in 1843 enabling a system of common schools to be established, free schools for all children were not provided until 1868. By the late 1980s Arkansas had 1094 public schools with a combined annual enrollment of 311,100 elementary pupils and 123,900 secondary students. About 23,100 students attended private schools. In the same period Arkansas had 37 institutions of higher education with a total yearly enrollment of some 88,600 students. Among the most notable of these schools were the University of Arkansas (1871), with branches in Fayetteville, Little Rock, Monticello, and Pine Bluff; Arkansas College (1872) in Batesville; Arkansas State University (1909) in State University, near Jonesboro; Arkansas Baptist College (1884) in Little Rock; University of the Ozarks (1834) in Clarksville; Harding University (1924) in Searcy; Henderson State University (1890) in Arkadelphia; and Hendrix College (1876) and the University of Central Arkansas (1907) in Conway.

Arkansas, one of the West South Central states of the United States, bounded on the north and northeast by Missouri, on the east by Tennessee and Mississippi, on the south by Louisiana, on the southwest by Texas, and on the west by Oklahoma. The Mississippi River forms virtually the entire eastern boundary.
Arkansas entered the Union as the 25th state on June 15, 1836. A slaveholding state, it was part of the Confederacy during the American Civil War (1861-1865). Long known as an agricultural state with diverse mineral resources, Arkansas by the 1990s had an economy that was dominated by the manufacturing and service sectors. The name of the state is taken from the Arkansas River, which was named for the Native Americans of the Arkansa tribe; the s was added as a plural, and the French pronunciation was retained. Arkansas is called the Land of Opportunity.

Land and Resources
Arkansas, with an area of 137,742 sq km (53,182 sq mi), is the 29th largest state in the United States; 7.1 percent of the land is owned by the federal government. Arkansas is roughly square in shape, although narrower in the south, and its extreme dimensions are about 355 km (about 220 mi) from both north to south and east to west. Elevations range from 17 m (55 ft) along the Ouachita River, near the Louisiana border, to a maximum of 839 m (2753 ft) at Magazine Mountain. The mean elevation is about 198 m (650 ft).

Physical Geography
The physical landscape of Arkansas consists of heavily wooded mountains in much of the north and west and plateaus and low-lying plains in the east and south. The Ozark Plateau covers much of the northern Arkansas, from the Oklahoma border to the Ozark escarpment on the east. It is a land of rugged hills and valleys and of upland forests interspersed with rich farmland. Above the southern section of the plateau rise the Boston Mountains. The Arkansas Valley separates the Ozark Plateau from the Ouachita Mountains. Although the valley is primarily a lowland, some mountains rise from its floor. It is a prosperous farming and mining area. The Ouachita Mountains to the south are composed of eastern-western trending ridges that are separated by narrow valleys. The region is a major source of timber and is also known for its hot springs.
The West Gulf Coastal Plain cuts a wide swath through southwestern Arkansas. It is part of the great coastal plain that extends north from the Gulf of Mexico. Soils of clay loams mixed with gravel make the area relatively fertile for farming and for the commercial growth of pine trees. The Mississippi Alluvial Plain occupies approximately the eastern one-third of the state. Rich alluvial soils have been deposited here over thousands of years by the Mississippi River during flood stages. Levees have been constructed to protect the farmland of the area from flooding.

Rivers and Lakes
The Mississippi River and its major tributary, the Arkansas River, drain most of the state. The majority of rivers in Arkansas flow east or southeast to either of these and include the Little Missouri, Ouachita, Saline, and Red rivers in the south and the Saint Francis, Black, and White rivers in the north. A number of oxbow lakes (abandoned river meanders) have been formed along the Mississippi River; Lake Chicot is the largest of these. Most of the large lakes of Arkansas, however, were artificially created. They include Dardanelle Reservoir on the Arkansas River and Lakes Ouachita, Catherine, and Hamilton in the Ouachita Mountains. Bull Shoals Lake and Lakes Beaver and Table Rock are located in the Ozark Plateau.

Climate
Arkansas has a humid subtropical climate; winters are mild and summers hot, particularly in the lowland areas. The average annual temperatures range from about 14.4° C (about 58° F) in the northwest to 18.9° C (66° F) in the lowlands. The highest recorded temperature in the state was 48.9° C (120° F), at Ozark in 1936; the lowest, -33.9° C (-29° F), at Gravette in 1905. Precipitation is well distributed through the year, with a slight concentration in the spring months. Average annual precipitation ranges from about 1000 mm (about 40 in) in the Ozark Plateau to nearly 1400 mm (about 55 in) in the southern plains. Occasional droughts may occur in the north and west.

Plants and Animals
Forests cover about one-half of the total land area of Arkansas. Pine forests are found mainly in the southwestern part of the state; eastern areas are covered by a great variety of hardwoods, including ash, buckeye, hackberry, hawthorn, hickory, maple, oak, and cherry. Arkansas is also known for its flowering trees and shrubs such as dogwood, azalea, and redbud, and for its wildflowers and ferns.
The mountains of the state are the habitat of a variety of small mammals, including mink, raccoon, skunk, weasel, and woodchuck. The plains are the home of deer, rabbit, fox, and bobcat. Birdlife thrives throughout the state and includes pheasant, duck, goose, turkey, and such songbirds as cardinal, robin, mockingbird, phoebe, and Whip-poor-will. Among the freshwater fish here are bass, catfish, perch, and sturgeon.

Mineral Resources
Arkansas is rich in mineral resources, chiefly petroleum and natural gas in the southwest, coal in the Arkansas Valley, and bauxite near Little Rock. The state also contains commercial quantities of granite, gypsum, marble, mercury, soapstone, vanadium, and bromine. Murfreesboro in the southwest has become famous as a source of diamonds.

Population
According to the 1990 census, Arkansas had 2,350,725 inhabitants, an increase of 2.8 percent over 1980. The average population density in 1990 was 17 people per sq km (44 per sq mi). Whites made up 82.7 percent of the population and blacks 15.9 percent; additional population groups included 12,733 Native Americans (including Eskimos and Aleuts) and 12,530 Asians and Pacific Islanders. Nearly 20,000 Arkansas residents were of Hispanic origin. The largest religious denominations were Baptists, accounting for 42.2 percent of the population in 1990, and Methodists, representing 8.8 percent. About 54 percent of the people of Arkansas lived in areas defined as urban, and the rest lived in rural areas. The state's largest cities were Little Rock, the capital; Fort Smith; North Little Rock; Pine Bluff; Jonesboro; and Fayetteville.


Cultural Institutions
Arkansas contains a variety of museums, including the Arkansas Arts Center in Little Rock; the Southeast Arkansas Arts and Science Center in Pine Bluff; the University of Arkansas Museum in Fayetteville; the Fort Smith Art Center in Fort Smith; and the Arkansas State University Art Gallery in State University. Of special interest are the Saunders Memorial Museum, exhibiting an outstanding collection of pistols and rifles, in Berryville; and the Miles Musical Museum, which displays old musical instruments and Native American cultural artifacts, in Eureka Springs. The Arkansas Symphony Orchestra is based in Little Rock.

Historical Sites
Many of Arkansas's historical sites commemorate the early pioneer days, such as Mountain Village 1890, a restoration of an early Ozark town, in Bull Shoals; Fort Smith National Historic Site, including a United States military installation built in 1817, in Fort Smith; and Arkansas Post National Memorial, marking the first permanent French settlement in the lower Mississippi Valley, near Gillett. Also of note are the Old State House in Little Rock and Pea Ridge National Military Park, the site of a Union victory in the American Civil War, near Rogers.

Sports and Recreation
Arkansas's parks, forests, and lakes provide ample opportunities for fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, swimming, boating, and horseback riding. Among the state's most popular recreational areas are Hot Springs National Park, with numerous mineral thermal springs; Ouachita National Forest; Ozark National Forest; Saint Francis National Forest; and Bull Shoals State Park.

Communications
In the early 1990s Arkansas had 99 AM and 129 FM radiobroadcasting stations and 21 television stations. The state's first radio station, WOK, in Pine Bluff, was licensed in 1920. KATV, in Little Rock, Arkansas's first commercial television station, began operation in 1953. The Arkansas Gazette, the state's first newspaper, was initially published as the Arkansas Post in 1819. By the early 1990s Arkansas had 32 daily newspapers with a total daily circulation of about 566,000. Influential dailies included the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in Little Rock and the Southwest Times Record in Fort Smith.

Government and Politics
Arkansas is governed under a constitution adopted in 1874, as amended. Four earlier constitutions had been adopted in 1836, 1861, 1864, and 1868. An amendment to the constitution may be proposed by the state legislature, by a constitutional convention, or by initiative. To become effective an amendment must be approved by a majority of the people voting on the issue in an election.

Executive
The chief executive of Arkansas is a governor, who (effective 1984) is popularly elected to a four-year term and who may be reelected any number of times. The same is true of the lieutenant governor, who succeeds the governor should the latter resign, die, or be removed from office. Other elected state officers include the secretary of state, attorney general, treasurer, auditor, and land commissioner.

Legislature
The bicameral Arkansas General Assembly is composed of a senate and a house of representatives. The 35 members of the senate serve four-year terms, and the 100 members of the house serve two-year terms.

Judiciary
Arkansas's highest court, the state supreme court, is composed of seven justices elected to serve eight-year terms. The intermediate court of appeals has six judges, also elected to eight-year terms. There are 32 chancery court judges serving four-year terms, 33 circuit court judges (six-year terms), and 33 chancery probate court judges (four-year terms).

Local Government
Arkansas has 75 counties, each of which is administered by a county judge. Other elected county officials include the treasurer, assessor, sheriff, clerk, coroner, surveyor, and collector.

National Representation
Arkansas elects two senators and four representatives to the Congress of the United States. The state has six electoral votes in presidential elections.

Politics
From the Reconstruction period through the mid-1960s Arkansas was, in both state and national elections, a Democratic party stronghold. In 1966, however, a Republican, Winthrop Rockefeller, won the state governorship. In 1968 George C. Wallace (American Independent) became the first non-Democratic presidential candidate to carry the state in almost 100 years. Since then, the Republican and Democratic parties have each experienced success in presidential, congressional, and gubernatorial races, but the Democrats have consistently controlled both houses of the state legislature. As governor of Arkansas (1979-1981, 1983-1993), Bill Clinton dominated state politics into the 1990s. In 1992 he was elected 42nd president of the United States.

Economy
By most standards, Arkansas is one of the poorest states in the United States. Although real personal income per capita in Arkansas rose by more than 1 percent annually during the 1980s, the state figure of $10,520 in 1990 was 27 percent below the United States average.
Arkansas has been described historically as part of the Cotton Belt. In recent years, however, this designation has become somewhat misleading. Although cotton remains a leading crop, natural gas and petroleum, broiler chickens, cattle, soybeans, and rice are far more important to the economy. Manufacturing and services together account for two-thirds of the gross state product.

Agriculture
Farming accounts for about 5 percent of the annual gross state product. The combination of a long growing season, plentiful rainfall, and rich alluvial soils has helped to make the state a national leader in the production of rice, soybeans, and cotton; these crops are grown primarily in the Mississippi Valley and the lowlands of the tributary rivers. Significant quantities of wheat, hay, sorghum, spinach, peaches, and tomatoes are also grown. Arkansas is an important producer of cattle, hogs, eggs, and turkeys and ranks first in the nation in the production of commercial broilers. Livestock and livestock products account for more than 60 percent of the state's farm income. Arkansas has about 46,000 farms averaging 136 hectares (337 acres).

Forestry
The state's timber resources are considerable. The principal types of lumber are oak, hickory, cypress, and especially pine, which is harvested increasingly from tree farms maintained by large corporations. About two-thirds of the annual timber cut is pine; the remainder consists of hardwoods.

Mining
The mining industry accounts for about 1 percent of the gross state product. Arkansas usually ranks first in the nation in the production of bromine. Bauxite deposits, which are concentrated in central Arkansas, are no longer mined commercially. Significant quantities of coal, petroleum, limestone, barite, and silica are mined, as well as small quantities of industrial diamonds.

Manufacturing
Since 1960 manufacturing employment has grown steadily, reaching a total in the late 1980s of about 230,000 jobs. Manufacturing enterprises account for about one-fourth of the gross state product. Most of the principal manufactured items are fabricated from the state's diverse raw materials, which include food products, petrochemicals, paper and wood products, apparel, and textiles. Electronic equipment is also a major manufacture. The principal industrial areas are found in or near the major cities. The region of Little Rock and North Little Rock is the state's industrial heart. Other important manufacturing centers are Fort Smith, Pine Bluff, El Dorado, and Fayetteville.

Tourism
More than 16 million people visit Arkansas each year, producing more than $2.4 billion for the state economy. Visitors are attracted to the areas in the state administered by the National Park Service, such as Hot Springs National Park and Fort Smith National Historic Site, as well as some 25 state parks. The state also maintains numerous recreation areas, many of which provide opportunities for fishing, boating, camping, and sightseeing.

Transportation
Arkansas has a network of about 124,055 km (about 77,085 mi) of federal, state, and local roads, including 847 km (526 mi) of interstate highways. The state is served by a system of about 3975 km (about 2470 mi) of operated railroad track. Railroads handle freight almost exclusively. An extensive inland waterway network comprises four rivers: the Mississippi, Arkansas, White, and Ouachita. Year-round barge service is available on all four rivers. The McClellan-Kerr Arkansas River Navigation System provides a navigable channel between the Mississippi River and Tulsa, Oklahoma. Little Rock, on the Arkansas River, is a port of entry; Fort Smith and Pine Bluff are also river ports. Arkansas has more than 160 airports; the principal ones are located in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Fort Smith, and Fayetteville.

Energy
The electric generating plants of Arkansas have a total capacity of 9.6 million kilowatts and produce about 37.1 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually. About 30 percent of the electricity is generated in nuclear power plants, about 60 percent in conventional steam-powered plants, and the remainder in hydroelectric installations.

History
Arkansas was named for Native Americans of the Arkansa, or Quapaw, tribe, one of the most numerous of the tribes that occupied the region before the coming of white settlers. Other Native American groups in the area included the Osage, Caddo, Cherokee, and Choctaw. Arkansas was explored by a Spanish expedition under Hernando de Soto in 1541. The French followed in the 17th century, and in 1686 Henri de Tonty founded a trading station at Arkansas Post, near the confluence of the Arkansas and Mississippi rivers. The region formed part of the area named Louisiana by the French explorer Robert Cavelier, Sieur de La Salle, in 1682. Americans began to settle Arkansas during the late 18th century; the United States acquired it from France as part of the Louisiana Purchase in 1803.

Statehood and the Antebellum Period
In 1812 Arkansas was made a county of the newly established Missouri Territory. Many veterans of the War of 1812 (1812-1815) settled in the region during the next decade. In 1819 the United States Congress granted Arkansas territorial status. The next year, when Little Rock was founded, the population of the territory numbered 14,273. Increasing numbers of cotton farmers migrated to the territory, bringing slaves with them, and by 1830 the population totaled 30,388. Exploitation of forest resources and the introduction of steamboat transportation further added to the growth, and by 1860, the population was 435,450, including 111,307 slaves.
Despite the numerical strength and political influence of the slave owners, considerable antisecessionist sentiment developed in Arkansas during the critical period preceding the outbreak of the American Civil War. The advocates of secession prevailed, however, after the rebellion began, and Arkansas was part of the Confederacy from 1861 to 1865.

Post-Civil War Period and the 20th Century
The period of Reconstruction in Arkansas was marked by acute economic distress and fierce political rivalries, graft, corruption, and mounting indebtedness. From 1868 to 1874, however, beginnings were made in railroad building, public schools were founded, and the University of Arkansas was established.
After Reconstruction, Arkansas became a stronghold of the Democratic party in both state and national politics, despite the development during the 1880s and 1890s of a strong third-party movement based on general agrarian discontent.
Noteworthy economic events included the discovery of bauxite near Little Rock in 1887, the development of oil fields in southern Arkansas beginning with a well near El Dorado in 1921, and the establishment of the Arkansas Industrial Development Commission in 1955.
In 1957 Governor Orval Faubus called out the Arkansas National Guard to prevent court-ordered integration at Little Rock Central High School. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent federal troops to enforce the law, and the black students were admitted to Central. The state's solidarity with the Democratic party was broken with the election of Winthrop Rockefeller, a Republican, as governor in 1966.
The Arkansas River navigation system, completed in 1970, opened up a water route between the Mississippi River and Oklahoma, promoting industrial expansion in several Arkansas River ports along the waterway. Voters in 1980 rejected a proposed new state constitution, but in 1984 they extended the terms of the governor and other state officials from two years to four. In the 1970s and 1980s the state promoted development of the cattle and poultry industries, bringing prosperity to some areas but also controversy over increased pollution.