Edwin Washington Project

The records have not yet fully fleshed out all of the reasons for tuition in the public schools, though we surmise that students who attended from neighboring counties paid tuition, and there was a boarding tuition for Loudoun and out of state students.  We also see evidence that troubled youths from Washington, DC did at one time attend schools in Loudoun and paid tuition through the DC government.  We have found no records of African-Americans paying tuition to attend Douglass High School or the Training Center for any other reason.  This may have been strictly a white student phenomenon.  However, we did see evidence of African-Americans boarding in homes to attend Conklin and likely other schools because of the lack of public transportation.  They would have had private arrangements with the homeowners.

Before there were public schools, itinerant educators charged a fee (tuition), which was also the case with academies. The Literary Fund also provided tuition support in its early days.  As far back as 1910, the role of the Literary Fund was to subsidize attendance by the poor to free school.  Local commissioners appointed by County Courts were required to find indigent children and pay a small fee for them[1].   Many teachers resisted, not wanting to service a charity case

In 1917/1918, when Emerick took over in Loudoun, there were 522 high schools across the State of Virginia and tuition fees (1311.99)[1] supported 1,780 teachers instructing over 27,000 students

1920:  Lincoln High School:   In 1920, Lincoln’s Board of Trustees set the following rates for tuition for boarding students:  High School, first and second years, $15.00; third and fourth years, $20.00.  Board at the Community House was 75 cents a day or $5 a week

1926 Funding of High Schools:   In 1926, public school expenditures for high school were paid from a mix of general and state funds, as well as high school tuition. 

1954:  Brown vs Board of Education:   In EWP 1.4.3, we noted that one response to the US Supreme Court’s direction to integrate schools was to amend the Virginia state constitution to allow public money to be used for private education. Billed as “school choice” it was a deliberate attempt to provide white families with tuition support to send their children to private schools to avoid having to send their children to school with Black children.  See the Gray Report and Massive Resistance.

Tuition for Wards of the State

• 1954:  Welfare Children.  See memo of May 26, 1954 in EWP 4.1 Circulars to Teachers (1947-1955).  Discussed wards of the state that were placed in foster homes in Loudoun County.  They were wards of the District of Columbia Welfare Board.
• 1955:  Welfare Children:  See EWP 2.2. According to the School Board meeting of December 12, welfare children from Washington DC were housed in Loudoun County homes.   Tuition rates were: Grades 1 to 7 - $150 and Grades 8-12, $200.    Memo of May 16, 1955 discusses influx of wards of the state from Washington, DC. (see EWP 4.1 Circulars to Teachers (1947-1955).