Thomas Jefferson not only believed in compulsory public education, he believed that the expense should be shared by the community. Now, true, he did not say the FEDERAL government should pay for it, but thinking back, this was a time when the federal government was still figuring out how to get off the ground, so he may have never foreseen the monster we have now and the ability to simply take what it wants.
Not that we are in a better spot now. Maybe we would all be better to go to plows and horses and let the rest of the world go to hell in a handbasket - except I don't think the oceans are the protectors they once were
Thomas Jefferson not only believed in compulsory public education, he believed that the expense should be shared by the community. Now, true, he did not say the FEDERAL government should pay for it, but thinking back, this was a time when the federal government was still figuring out how to get off the ground, so he may have never foreseen the monster we have now and the ability to simply take what it wants. Jefferson probably did think it more of a state or local function, but he definitely believed that public education was necessary to maintain our system of government.
Since the beginning there's also been the idea that education could make up for deficiencies in parenting (even Jefferson makes some comments about the process of education discovering hidden "gold" in "the rabble") which seems to suit most people as long as (1) they aren't the parents judged deficient and/or (2) it doesn't take too much money to remediate the deficiencies.