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Mandated Schools
The General Court of Massachusetts Bay Colony said every town of 50 families should have an elementary school. Every town of 100 families should have a should have a Latin school. -
Schools in Boston
In 1817 local merchants, businessmen and wealthier artisans supported a free public primary school system at their Boston Town Meeting. In 1820, the first public high school in the U.S., Boston English, opened. -
Common School Movement
Initially, public schools were created for poor families. The idea was that wealthy families should have to pay for their kid's schools. The common school movement supported that public schools should be open to all students. Serving all children equally would advance moral, social, and economic interests in the nation. -
Treaty of Guadalupe-Hildago
The war against Mexico ends with the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildago. The United States gained almost half of what was Mexico. Mexicans and Natives were guaranteed citizenship in the new parts of America, as well as the continued use of the Spanish language including in education. California later breaks this in 1998 proposition 227 makes it illegal for teachers to speak Spanish in public schools. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
After Homer Plessy was arrested for violating the Separate Car Act. Plessy refused to leave the train car reserved for white passengers only. Henry Billings Brown argued that the Fourteenth Amendment was intended to secure only legal equality of African Americans and Whites, not social equality. The Supreme Court ended up ruling in favor of segregating all public facilities, including railroad cars, restaurants, hospitals, and schools. This ruling was under the separate but equal doctrine. -
Indian Citizenship act
Public schools were allowed to deny noncitizens into the education system until the 1970s. In 1924 Congress made all Native Americans U.S. Citizens. This gave them the right to go to schools unfortunately privileges were largely governed by state laws and the right to vote was often denied. -
Brown v. the Board of Education, Topeka
Oliver Brown filed a class action suit against the Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas after his daughter Linda Brown was denied entrance to an all-white school. Going back to the Separate but Equal Act affecting Plessy V.S. Ferguson Brown argued that these schools the equal protection clause. the new chief justice Warren was able to succeed with a unanimous verdict against school segregation. Warren wrote, " in the field of public education the doctrine of separate but equal has no place". -
Little Rock Mob
September 4th, 1957, at Central High a white mob, and Governor Orval Faubus National Guard are waiting to stop black students from entering school. This was three years after Brown V.S. Board ruling eliminating segregation in schools. NAACP Lawyers won a federal court injunction to prevent the governor from blocking the student's entry Martin Luther King was afraid of the mob getting more violent. After Receiving a letter from King President Eisenhower ordered troops to protect the students. -
Title IX
The Title IX of the Educational Amendments was an update to Title VII of the Civil Rights Act. The Civil Rights Act banned discrimination in employment but did not address any issues in education. Title IX prohibited any sex-based bias in any school or educational program that received funding from the federal government. With this act, no person in the United States was to be excluded or denied of educational programs based on sex. -
Education of all Handicapped Children Act
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed by Congress in 1975. This required all public schools to provide equal access to education for children with mental and physical disabilities. This was to protect the rights of children with disabilities. In 1970 Schools only educated one in five children with disabilities, states had laws excluding certain disabilities such as deaf or blind. -
Pyler v. Doe
In the 1950s segregated schooling was stopped, but for more than thirty years anti-immigrant sentiments continued to threaten the right of schooling. With some states allowing denial of enrollment in public schools to foreign-born children who were not legally admitted into the United States. In June of 1982, the Supreme Court issued Plyler VS. Doe a decision that states cannot constitutionally deny students a free public education on account of their immigration status. This was a 5-4 vote. -
Propostion 187
Pyler V.S. Doe in the 1970s made it unconstitutional l for schools to deny immigrants to education. In 1994 California passed Proposition 187 making it illegal for children of undocumented immigrants to attend public school. This proposition directed teachers and healthcare providers to report any individual suspected of being undocumented to immigration.