Idk about "Most presidents" but I do know the history of education in the US reflects a focus on its importance from the founding. The commitment to local public schools, not "homeschooling," marked the American landscape from pioneer days on. Check out the Ordinance of 1787 and its commitment to supporting public education. I worry that Santorum gets carried away with his own wonderfulness because he thinks it's still Iowa and nobody is watching.
“Parents educated their children because it was their responsibility.”
That might be true, but not many parents cheated of money a school in Pennsylvania - $100,000 - between 2001 and 2004 for your childen’s homeschool programs, while living with the family in Virginia, Senator Santorum.
You NEVER reimbursed that money to the school, Senator. Time to notice the beam in your eye first.
You have bought the myth. The “public schools,” as now understand the term really dates from the 1870s, when Boston established the first district. Besides, public education doesn’t necessarily mean government run schooling. Virtually all the colleges and universities before the land-grant colleges were private and founded by religious bodies. Ditto the academies. Community schools were almost entirely elementary schools running through the eight grade. In 1900, only ten percent of the 17th year olds were in secondary level education. The majority were in academies that schooled their students through the first two years of college. St. Edward’s Academic in Austin turned out engineers as good as A&M’s. After 1910, the progressives began to push secondary education for all. Schools got very large and were operated pretty much like factories, using Taylor’s methods for efficiency. There was a push for vocation education, and until after the 2nd world war, the high schools did train students in usable skills. But after the GI Bill made a college education readily available, college prep gradually became the only real goal. Had to provide customer for the rapidly expanding colleges.