Education: The Battle of Waterloo, 1947

Waterloo is a sleepy Oklahoma town, a whistle stop on the Santa Fe. Its people are mostly dirt farmers who raise wheat on the red, rolling land, or "sundown farmers" who work in the oilfields nearby. Waterloo's white frame schoolhouse can be seen from the homes of almost every one of the eight families who send their kids to school there.

Last week Waterloo was astir with the biggest local news in 25 years. By state order, the school had been shut down.

Oklahoma had passed a law abolishing the 1,500 one-room schoolhouses in the...

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