Harris County Department of Education

The plaque names B. L. James as Harris County's first superintendent; the Handbook of Texas explains what that office did across the state. The legislature let commissioners courts create it in 1887, let voters call for it in 1905 and made it mandatory in 1907 for counties with more than 3,000 school-age children. The superintendent served as executive officer of the county trustees, held teachers' institutes, supervised the common school districts, approved school-fund vouchers and handed out textbooks. Where nobody held the post, the county judge did the work. In May 1945, 167 counties had one.

What the plaque says

Harris County Department of Education The Texas Declaration of Independence specifically noted the lack of a public education system as one compelling reason for establishing a separate republic. Later, as a result, Republic of Texas President Mirabeau B. Lamar led the Congress in setting aside land in each county to support primary schools and colleges. As Texas continued to develop during the 19th century, additional legislation began to define a cohesive educational system. By November 1856, Harris County funded schooling for indigent children; within two years, the county also used public monies for teacher examinations. During the next decades, the state created the office of the State Superintendent of Schools, allowing each county to establish the office of County Superintendent. Early Harris County schools were served by district and community systems. In 1889, the county created its Department of Education, and all schools became part of its jurisdiction. B.L. James became the first County Superintendent, and he oversaw more than 50 Common School Districts. These districts together served approximately 900 students. In the 1920s, once a district's enrollment reached 500, it could attain independent status. As the Texas school district system changed throughout the 20th century, services of the Harris County Department of Education evolved. In 1978, the Legislature abolished state funding for county school trustees, and by 2003 only two such entities fully functioned -- in Harris and Dallas counties -- existing as non-profit support organizations. Today, the Harris County Department of Education supports students, teachers, administrators, school boards and public schools with a wide range of programs. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Sam Houston Park and the Heritage Society — 3.9 mi
  Ten historic buildings gathered in a downtown park below the skyscrapers, among them the 1870 house of the Reverend Jack Yates, built five years after emancipation.
• Emancipation Park — 5.5 mi
  The Third Ward park that freedpeople bought for Juneteenth in 1872, rebuilt in 2017 on Emancipation Avenue and still the center of the city's June 19 celebration.
• Buffalo Soldiers National Museum — 5.6 mi
  A museum in Houston's 1925 Light Guard Armory that tells the service of Black soldiers from the Revolutionary War onward, built from one veteran's thirty years of collecting.
• Rothko Chapel — 5.8 mi
  An octagonal chapel open to all faiths, built by the de Menils around fourteen dark canvases by Mark Rothko, with Barnett Newman's Broken Obelisk standing in the pool outside.

More markers nearby

• Emmanuel Baptist Church — 1.6 mi
• Mollie Bailey — 1.8 mi
• James D. Burrus Elementary School — 1.8 mi
• Hortense Sparks Malsch Ward — 1.8 mi