The Economics of Public Schools

The 1957 Little Rock school crisis was an economic disaster for the city. The negative headlines from calling out the National Guard to prevent the desegregation of Central High School reverberated around the world. The closing of Little Rock’s public high schools in 1958-1959 further alienated potential investors. The city lived to rue the economic costs of the long school crisis. Four years passed before another industry relocated to the city. Everett Tucker, industrial director of the Little Rock Chamber of Commerce, found himself in demand by chambers of commerce throughout the South to help them to learn the so-called “Lesson of Little Rock” and to save their own local economy and community schools from ruin. Tucker’s message was a simple one. “Keep your public schools open,” he told them. “You will never regret it.”