“At the time the Constitution was written, education was not even considered a function of local government, let alone the federal government.”
From the NC Constitution of 1776:
“41. That a school or schools shall be established by the legislature, for the convenient instruction of youth, with such salaries to the masters, paid by the public, as may enable them to instruct at low prices; and, all useful learning shall be duly encouraged and promoted in one or more universities.”
Murray is a bit inaccurate. But he’s right- the Federal government’s DOE should be done away with, and the Federal government’s involvement cut completely out.
The University of North Carolina was established and chartered in 1789 at Chapel Hill under that Constitutional mandate, but practical reality apparently prevented any sort of broad establishment of public schools for elementary education until just prior to the Civil War.
The people of a given locality typically banded together, built a schoolhouse and hired a teacher or teachers themselves, just as they did in colonial times. The old, extended family schoolhouse from that era still stood in my childhood. Six fairly large family farms all in proximity, all with the typically large number of children. The school bore the family surname. It was used as a tobacco packhouse after public schools came in.
This was the norm in much if not all of rural NC, to my knowledge. Municipalities of any scale had their own schools. Historically church-run areas such as the Moravian settlements surrounding Salem and the Quaker settlements surrounding modern-day Greensboro had their church-run schools. There were institutes run by various groups as well, for instance the Masonic Institute, etcetera.