Yeah — that’s when the dripping began.
Government schools have no place in a free nation.
It was in no way as universal as that. In Arkansas where my family came up, virtually none had K-12 public education before the 1920s when it was made mandatory. My great grandparents, near all had minimal education, most none. The only one before 1920 that I found to be literate was a Methodist minister, so he was required to be able to read.
Virginia was a model because of Jefferson establishing public education there, but don’t confuse what happened there with the whole country.
And those pesky child labor laws that got 10 year olds out of the mills and into schools where they could get an education and better themselves was a drip moment.
Public and free schools help insure an educated and free populace. It provides the opportunity to better one’s station in life.
Are some public schools garbage? Yes and those local communities need to engage and remind them who pays for and ‘owns’ the schools. If you are truly of the belief that public schools have no place in a free nation, perhaps you should go to some 3rd world dirt farmer countries to see how that works out for the people there. The sheer ignorance displayed by some people here is astounding some days.