Biography of Samuel Lewis

Samuel Lewis (1799-1854) was appointed Superintendent of Common Schools in 1838. When he accepted the position he traveled across Ohio to research the quality of existing schools, visiting 340 schools. He found intense animosity among Ohio residents toward the existing taxes for funding schools, even though the State legislature was allocating to the school districts just 14 cents per student. In 1838 Lewis issued a report that described the problems of Ohio’s 8,000 school districts that were educating almost 500,000 students, and recommended a course of action. The legislature took no action on his recommendations, and Lewis resigned in 1839.