Education on the Great Plains: An Introduction

Authors

Erwin H. Goldenstein, University of Nebraska-Lincoln

Date of this Version

1991

Document Type

Article

Comments

Published in GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY 11:4 (Fall 1991). Copyright © 1991 Center for Great Plains Studies, University of Nebraska–Lincoln.

Abstract

Few people asked to identify outstanding exemplars of education in the United States would immediately think of the Great Plains or its people. And it may well be that the authors of the Land Ordinance of 1785 were more interested in enticing settlers to the old Northwest Territory than in providing financial support for education when they set aside one section of public land in every thirty-six sections for the support of education. Yet education has become very important to the immigrant peoples who have occupied the Great Plains over the past two centuries, and there can be little doubt that the promises, both of free or inexpensive land and of educational opportunity, were factors that helped lure them here. Today students in the plains states regularly achieve among the highest ACT and SAT scores in the nation, and colleges and universities in the region have achieved a degree of prominence.