[jla]

Jefferson advocated public funding of education yet maintained that schools, (elementary, district colleges, and university), be managed by the private sector.

Source: Jefferson's sixth annual message to Congress

[LS]

Yes, but what exactly did he mean by the “private sector?” It meant different things then and now. At any rate, John Adams, Nathaniel Greene, William Penn, Benjamin Rush, John Jay, and George Washington all urged public money be spent for education at lower levels; and most of them supported a national university that would be public but secular.