American education has changed dramatically since the Colonial era, with creative and new ways to educate the populace en masse. At the time of the nation’s founding, education was a private endeavor, meaning many citizens went uneducated, as resources and assets were limited. Political and education reform leaders sought unique ways to provide a stable, formal and centralized way to educate all students, which created the publicly funded school system we know today.

In recent decades, parents have sought to regain control of what and how their children are being taught, especially as education has become more politicized and polarized.

In the graphic below, we display how the parent-driven methods of the past and the publicly funded resources of recent years are beginning to intertwine today, which may help to give the next generation access to a state-funded education that is better fitted to their unique needs.

Read a more in-depth breakdown of each era in the timeline by following these resources: 

History of parent-driven education: Part 1 – From the Colonial era to the nation’s founding

Part 2 – From the common school movement to the mid-1990s

Part 3 – Growth of federal education policy from early 1900s to 1980s

Part 4 – The rise of the modern home-schooling movement

Part 5 – Charter schools and pre-pandemic public-school choice

Part 6 – Vouchers, ESAs and pre-pandemic private-school choice

Part 7 – Today’s post-pandemic era to the future of parent-driven options