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Old Deluder Satan Act
Twelve years after the founding of the Boston Latin School, The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony mandates all Puritan children are educated. The decree ensures that towns of fifty families have an elementary school and every town of one hundred families has a Latin school. This act builds upon one made five years previous, which required parents to ensure their children were able to read. With this decree, basic education became a public responsibility. -
A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge
Governor of Virginia Thomas Jefferson proposes "A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge." A two-track educational system that separates the country’s future laborers and its enlightened. The bill promotes scholarships for the brightest of students of the laboring track to attend Jefferson’s own College of William and Mary. Jefferson suggests this act of academic kindness is akin to “raking a few geniuses from the rubbish.” -
Basic Land Ordinance
The Continental Congress passes a law that allows settlers to buy land in the undeveloped west. This "Northwestern Territory" survey leads to the founding of "townships" in what is now the State of Ohio. Each township has land reserved for the establishment of a public school. This practice continues and leads to what we know today as the public university. -
Formation of the New York Public School Society
To educate the poor of New York into a factory working class, a league of wealthy businessmen create the New York Public School Society. This society constructs schools based upon the Lancasterian model, where a singular teacher teaches classrooms as large as hundreds of students. With an emphasis upon obedience and disciplinary qualities, the New York Public School Society adds to the nation's next generation of diligent factory workers. -
Plessy v. Ferguson Supreme Court Decision
The U.S. Supreme Court recognizes segregation as legal. In this infamous Supreme Court decision, the State of Louisiana is given the right to reserve "separate but equal" railroad cars for Blacks and Whites. Several southern states began implementing segregation laws in public schools in the aftermath, supported by the "separate but equal" model. It would take fifty-eight years for the Supreme Court to overturn this decision. -
Smith-Hughes Act
Also known as the National Vocational Education Act, this legislature calls for federal funding for precollegiate vocational training. It is meant to promote the agricultural and industrial industries. In reality, it strips the training rights of the trade unions' apprenticeship programs and places the country's largest corporations in control. This control strangles the apprenticeship model to its breaking point. -
Formation of the Educational Testing Service
The Education Testing Service is formed, joining several organizations just like it and continuing the legacy of Carl C. Brigham, a renowned eugenicist. Brigham would insist that American education was declining and “will proceed with an accelerating rate as the racial mixture becomes more and more extensive.” This step in affirming standardization ensured that the future American will be the ideal factory worker. -
Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka
For the first time in U.S. history, racial segregation in schools is considered unconstitutional. In this landmark legislation, the Supreme Court declared that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal" and must be abolished. With no clear laid out method to this abolishment, however, schools remained segregated. Half a century later, in fact, schools in the northeast are as segregated as ever. -
Title IX
Passed as a part of the Education Amendments of 1972, this legislature prohibits sex-based discrimination in any educational program that receives federal funding. The passing of this legislation led to a severe increase in young womens' participation in school athletics. Title IX was first used to argue that sexual harassment of female students could be considered illegal sex discrimination in Alexander v. Yale. -
Milliken v. Bradley Supreme Court Decision
In this gravely significant case, a Supreme Court appointed by Richard Nixon found that school systems may not be under any obligation to desegregate. Unless, of course, it could be shown that their district lines were drawn with racist intent. This intent was more than difficult to ascertain, and several school districts were held not responsible. Twenty-five years after the infamous Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka decision, segregation in schools became legal once more. -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
This legislature requires all public schools accepting federal funds to provide physical and mentally disabled children equal access to education. Schools are also required to evaluate children with disabilities and work alongside their parents to form an educational plan that closely resembles a non-disabled child's. According to the act, schools must provide the appropriate administrative channels for parents to dispute decisions before those disputes are brought to court. -
Plyler v. Doe Supreme Court Decision
Revisions to education laws in Texas made it so that undocumented immigrant students were exempt from receiving state funds and were denied enrollment into public schools. This Supreme Court decision found these laws to violate the Fourteenth Amendment and ensured that all students were entitled to these rights regardless of immigrant status. This has only extended to the K-12 level, and several states still deny the enrollment of undocumented students.