[steve-b]

Private enterprise has never created viable means of education when that is all there is. It was precisely because of the failures of private enterprise that public schools were created.

***BBBZZZZZTTTTT*** I'm sorry; that answer is not correct. Don't forget to pick up your consolation prizes.

The correct answer is: An indication of the typical level of pre-government education can be found by reading The Federalist Papers, and recalling that they were published in newspapers to be read by the general public.

[justshutupandtakeit]

Well that was one of the most ignorant comments I have seen here in a while even on a thread with a bunch of libertarians.

The Federalist Papers were not written for the typical American of that time but for the THINKING citizens who supported the idea of building a nation and party leaders. More typical of the writings for the ordinary citizen of that era would be the Jeffersonian Jacobin lies spewing from Freanue and Callander directed at those attempting to build a great nation. Hamilton and Washington built this nation in spite of a spate of lies from the proto-Democratic party. Outside the Eastern states and Virginia the number of literate citizens was very low and they could not comprehend two sentences in the Federalist. They didn't matter since they could not vote anyway.

Voting was highly restricted and literacy was probably a requirement in order to vote so that, very small, segment of the population was educated but the huge majority who could not vote (in Virginia this was at least 95% of the population) was rarely educated and just barely literate.

Try learning some actual history instead of mythology our history is very complex and fascinating.