Our founders were all very much in favor of public education and its most vigorous proponent was Benjamin Franklin, who also pushed forward the idea of public libraries - having formed the first of them himself and at his own expense. The reason they were for it was becasue of the european and English class systems which kept most people from gaining any formal education, and which the founders felt was a major reason why tyranny and monarchy was able to flourish.
Universal education at the public expense was seen as an insurance policy for liberty. The more educated the people, the longer the fledgling republic they fought so hard to establish would last. Also, in their day, all control over what was taught rested in the community which the school served. If teachers were found to be ineffective, incompetent, or teaching things which the community at large felt ran contrary to the interests of the community, they could be removed without much fuss.
Fast forward 200 years. The principle is still sound, but it has become understood, especially by people with agendas, that the school is the best place to foster their ideas and propagandize the next generation - rather than just teach them how to read, write, add and think for themselves. Add to that the advent of teachers unions, tenure, and a dozen other factors that limit direct parental involvement in their children's education, and you have a situation in which the public schools that were seen by our founders as the vanguard of our liberties are now working, in many cases, towards their destruction.
The movement away from todays public schools can be seen as an attempt to return to what those schools used to be. Returning control of what children are taught back to the parents. A movement that has been driven by the unwillingness of school boards and administrations - protected by unions, tenure and federal intrusion - to listen to the people they are supposed to serve. IMHO.
We have the freedom to analyze Freedom through the eyes of our Founding Fathers, while our kids' friends at yon local public school spend their days on what their socialist teachers think makes this country great: Martin Luther King, environmentalist theories, and diversity training. Even my 7-year-old has memorized the Preamble to the Constitution, and I have them write as well as memorize quotes such as these.
Thanks for providing us with a motherlode of goodies here!