[Aquinasfan]

When public schools were first created in the very early 1800's in New England every parent was required to send their kids to public schools. When they said public schools they meant schools funded by taxpayers. These public schools were all run by churches. They were funded on a per-child basis, the more kids attending, the more funding you got.

That's news to me. Do you mean financed by the town? The first state-wide compulsory attendance laws were passed in Massachusetts but that was somewhere around 1850.

[Red Jones]

I read that in New England states such schools were funded by the state, not the town, in early 1800's. I can't remember where I read that, but it was a long time ago. And I also read that the modern idea of centralized public schools started only when people were outraged that taxpayer money was going to catholic schools. Maybe it was only compulsory in the towns where schools were prospering. Or maybe it was not absolutely compulsory, but still state-funded. Maybe they waited until schools were more common before they required everyone to go, even the rural people.