​Republican presidential candidates are all taking aim at education – hoping to restore parental rights and increase choices in education. They’re following in the steps of the states that have been pushing a revival of parent-driven education. 

Notwithstanding America’s parent-driven education roots, some of our nation’s Founders saw benefit in publicly funded education, pushing constitutional or statutory language to create it early on. By the 1790s, features of common schools – an early type of public school we know today – began to emerge in America in places like New York, where common “pay” schools proliferated; these were schools where students could pay to attend and gain a common education with any others that paid to attend as well.  

These were the early philosophical foundations of what would become the common school movement. This era of advocacy would lay a foundation for swinging the education pendulum away from parents and toward the more centralized, government-driven model of public schools that we are used to today. 

The common school movement 

Though multiple education reformers played a role in the emergence of the American common school, most attribute Horace Mann with its inception around 1830. As the best-known advocate for free, nonsectarian and universal education for all children in the United States, Mann is considered the father of public education.  

Mann served in the Massachusetts state legislature before being appointed secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education in 1837, where he published on education in the Common School Journal. By 1843, Mann went to Europe to study its education systems. Most impactful on him was his trip to Prussia, a country that incorporated ideas like creating a common (in Prussia’s case, national) identity through schooling, centralized curriculum decisions, standardized teacher preparation, and even a national department of education. Mann’s work in learning about Prussia’s system helped shape his philosophies and the features we readily recognize in most of today’s public schools.  

The concept of the common school was a response to societal changes politically and economically. Agricultural life was giving way to factories, government was investing in infrastructure like roads, and society was seeing a rise in poverty and disparities between the rich and poor. Immigration brought new people and stoked suspicion of their religious traditions. Amid all this, some education reformers felt the need to offer a universal and unifying mode of education.  

The motivations for creating common schools were to address these societal issues. One was to reduce poverty and crime. Another was to create a more united American culture among diverse groups. They were also seen as a way for the common person regardless of class (though race and religion still mattered) to gain education, morality, and the characteristics of citizenship. As this model developed it became an entrenched mode of operation for American life: centralized education that required state and local participation and funds. 

Standardizing the teaching profession and compulsory education 

Part of this movement included the standardization and professionalization of teaching, which required both formal training and unity of voice on issues that were challenging for teachers. In 1839 the first public Normal School was established in Lexington, Massachusetts, to train teachers; “normal schools” were the name for teacher preparation institutions (later these became teacher colleges and then university departments of education). Previously, teachers could largely be anyone hired by parents or private entities to teach a subject or skill. Thus began a more systematic way of teaching pedagogy. In some ways, this could be seen as a good outcome since teachers were better prepared for the classroom; however, standardization of pedagogy may also be the reason teaching has been viewed as less personalized for students. 

Likewise, in 1857 the National Teachers Association was created. It was established when different state-level associations invited others to join so they could have a national voice. This was important for many teachers because they often lacked the necessities to teach, were paid little for their services, or experienced poor working conditions. 

A few years before, in 1852, Massachusetts created the first compulsory education law, which compelled students ages 8 to 14 years old to attend school – the ideals of common school could not be achieved if not enough students attended. By 1918 all states in the U.S. had mandatory attendance laws. This meant that centralized school, with the government’s role, became more muscular and standardized over time. These features are the same as those we see in today’s typical public school district. 

Schooling through the mid-20th century 

Modeled after the common school, public schools spread through the 19th century, though not evenly. The Northeast was again ahead of others in adopting public schools (as it was in the Colonial era). Cities tended to introduce them faster than rural areas. 

Though most areas of the country would eventually establish public schools, by 1870 about 78% of students ages 5 to 14 had access to public schools. Public high school would take even longer to catch on. In 1910, only 14% of Americans 25 years and older had a high school degree, as opposed to 2017, when 90% of that same demographic had a high school diploma. Today most states shoot for 100% graduation rates as a typical goal. 

This suggests that as public schools became the norm, more intensive parent-driven versions of education became less of the norm in American life. This is true today: Most parents send their children to public school. 

The ultimate dream of universal public schools as an institution of unity and equal access was still a work in progress. Race discrimination and segregation of black and white students in public schools made it difficult to realize these early hopes. In some states, Latin American, American Indian and Chinese American students faced similar discrimination and segregation in schools. In 1954 the U.S. Supreme Court held in Brown v. Board of Education that the “separate but equal” concept (which justified segregation) was unconstitutional. Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, political battles continued over education for women, people of different races and religions, and students with special needs. With time, the federal government would continue to grow in influence to push national agendas.  

Conclusion 

The common school movement kick-started a move toward the public school we know today. It was also a step away from the earlier parent-driven models seen in the early Colonial days and would become the base from which today’s reforms are made.