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Before public schools
Before public education was available to all children, many did not have the privilege of going to school. Many students were not able to attend school based on their income, race or ethnicity, gender, geographic location, among many other reasons. Mainly white children, who did not receive instruction were educated through different arrangements like church- supported schools, local schools organized by towns or groups of parents, tuition schools set up by traveling schoolmasters, etc. -
First public school in America.
The Boston Latin School was founded in 1635. This free education was offered to only boys, rich or poor. While the girls had to attend private schools at home. -
Completion of the Schoolhouse
Classes were held in the home of the first headmaster, Philemon Pormont, up until 1645 when the schoolhouse was completed. There is a mosaic and a statue of former president Benjamin Franklin that currently marks the location of the original schoolhouse. -
Every town of fifty families
The General Court of the Massachusetts Bay Colony decides that every town of fifty families should have a Latin school. The goal of this was that every child had access and was able to read the bible and learn basic information about their Calvinist religion. -
Northwest Territory
The Continental Congress passed a law calling for a survey of the Northwest Territory. This included what was to become the state of Ohio. This law created townships for a local school. These were called land grants universities, the state public universities that exist today. -
Free public education for poor children
Pennsylvania state constitution calls for free public education but only for poor children. It is expected that rich people will pay for their children's schooling. -
Free public primary schools
A petition presented in the Boston town meeting calls for establishing of a system of free public primary schools. Main support comes from local merchants, businessman and wealthy artisans. Many people oppose it, because they did not want to pay the taxes. -
Free public school to all
Massachusetts passes a law making all grades of public education open to all free of charge. -
Horace Mann
Horace Mann becomes head of the newly formed Massachusetts State Board of education. Edmund Dwight, who was a major industrialist, thinks a state board of education was so important to factory owners that he offered to supplement the state salary with extra money of his own. Horace man is known for his commitment to promoting public education and known as the Father of American Education. -
Reform Schools
Massachusetts Reform School at Westboro opens, where children who have refused to attend public schools are sent. This begins the tradition of reform schools, which combine the education and juvenile justice systems. -
Public education in the South
African Americans mobilize to bring public education to the South for the first time. After the civil war, and with the legal end of slavery, African Americans in the South make alliances with the white Republicans to push for many political changes, including for the first time rewriting state constitutions to guarantee free public education. -
Plessy vs. Ferguson
Plessy vs. Ferguson decision in the US Supreme court rules that the state of Louisiana has the right to require " separate but equal" railroad cars for blacks and whites. This decision means that the federal government officially recognizes segregation as legal. One result of this is that, southern states pass laws requiring racial segregation in public schools. -
NAACP
The NAACP brings a series of suits over unequal teachers pay for blacks and whites in southern states. At the same time, southern states realize they are losing African American labor to the northern cities. These two sources of pressure resulted in some increase of spending on Black schools in the south. -
Brown vs. Board
Brown vs. Board of education of Topeka. The supreme court unanimously agrees that segregated schools are inherently unequal and must be abolished. Almost 45 years later in 1998, schools mainly in the north, are very segregated. -
Little Rock
A federal court orders integration of little rock, Arkansas public schools. The governor Orval Faubus sent the national guard to physically prevent nine African american students from enrolling at an all white Central high school. President Eisenhower was being reluctant, and sent his troops to enforce the court order not because he supported desegregation, but because he could not let a state governor use military power to defy the U.S federal government. -
Milliken v. Bradley
Milliken vs Bradley, a supreme court made up of Richard Nixon's appointees ruled that schools may not be desegregated across school districts. This effectively legally segregates students of color in the inner city districts from white students in wealthier white suburban districts. -
Proposition 187
Passed in California, proposition 187, making it illegal for children of undocumented immigrants to attend public school. Federal courts hold proposition 187 unconstitutional, but anti immigrants feeling spreads across the country. -
Now
Today in America, there is free public education offered to every child no matter their race, religion, or how much money they have. Public schools are paid for by the government with local taxes, state money, and federal resources. Children from many different cultures who speak many different languages are in public schools all across the united states.