Figure 1.--Immediately after the Revolution the United States began building a free punblic school system with the Land and Northwest Ordinances (1785-87), even before the new Federal Constitution (1789). At the time it was a rvolutionary grand experiment. The problem was that the vast majority of Americans lived in rural areas and the threshold of a largely unban population would not occur until the 1920s. So the country's move to educate its people had to primarily occur in rural areas. Almost all other countries not only did not have public schools, but the schools that existded were mostly in cities and towns. This is a small rural school in Wisconsin during 1939. It is a last glimse at the small rural schools that played a key role in bulding America. At the time, expanding war production wae drawing rural residents into the cities where high wages were being offered in the factories. And school distructs as a budget cutting measures were closing these schools and bussing the children into consolidatred town schools. Also notice the electrical line. That was the work of the New Deal's efforts to assist rural America, especially the Rural Electrification Administration.
Almost ignored because oublic schools today are vuirtually taken for granted is thw American decision from a very early point to create a free system of public schools. hus was an entirely new revolutary program. During the colonial era (1609-1776), education varied greatly among the colonies on a regional basis. Education was not a matter mandated by the British Crown as England itself would not found a public school system for another century (1870). And had a strong tradition of private schooling. A few colonies required the education of all from an early point. This tended to be the colonies most fervently Protestant and influenced by the Puritans. Massachusetts was especially important, but this was generally the case throughout New England. Most of the colonies saw education as a matter best left to the discretion of parents. Churches and other community groups often played important roles, but what might be called private schooling predominated. Thus a child's access to education was limited by geography, religion, and family income. Race and gender were also important factors. While public education was limited in the colonies, there was a literacy rate above that of England and much higher than in most of Europe with a few exceptions, especially Protest countries such as the Netherlands. The approach to education changed fundamentally with Revolution. Many of the founding fathers were deeply concerned about education, none more so than Thomas Jefferson. And despite differing views on the role of the new Federal Government, there was a broad national consensus on this, including support from the southern states. As a result, the new nation set out to educate its entire citizenry--a remarkable program at the time. (German states were the only other country to adopt a similar policy promoting public education.) Witin only a few years after the Revolution, two major pieces of legislation set the Unites States on a its radical new educational effort. These were the Land Ordinance (1785) and the Northwest Ordinance (1787), both predating the Federal Constitution (1789). The Northwest Ordinance only involved a few states north of the Ohio River, but served as a template for most states, with the exception of most southern states as it did not cover the 13 original colonies, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Texas. The Federal lands were used to fund the the creation and funding of public (at the time often reffered to as 'common') schools.
In the South, tutors were the most common means of education for the planter class. During the colonial period, it was not uncommon for such upper-crust Southerners to send their children overseas to England and Scotland for their education at a boarding school.
For the most part, where people received formal education, it ended at eighth grade. Secondary education was not commonplace for the majority of Americans until the mid-20th century.
Private schools until after the World War II were primarily for the well-to-do segment of the population. This began to change in the 1970s as liberals began to increasingly began to use public education to spread their ideology, not uncommonly at the cost of academic standards. The result was the rise of home schooling and Christian academies. These academies were like the parochial schools, low cost private schools. This movement has intensified with the advent of more secular new private schools resisting the public schools introducing ahistorical conceos like critical race theory, the 1609 Projrct, Black Lives Matters socialist ideology, white privlidge, and Marxist hate-America ideas. This was done not by rigorous examination, but by cherry picking historical events and usually by comparing America to utopia rather than actual other countries. This was generally done quietly, but in the 2020s educators like Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers began to openly object to parents interfering with their indoctrination efforts. These ideas also leeked into private scghools, but here parents are able to pick and choose. And in the 2020s we see the introduction of a range of sexual issues into the public schools. Issues which many see better handled by parents. This and the decline of discipline expectations and academic standards has caused more and more parents to seek alternatives to the public school system.
