"Early American schooling was dominated by homeschooling, along with a vibrant free-market education ecosystem. Outside of education at home, which is where most children learned to read, the landscape featured mostly schools run by churches and entrepreneurs, as well as private tutors."
"At least, that was the case until Mann came along and created America’s first ever state-controlled, bureaucratic, property tax-funded government school system. At the same time as that was occurring,
along with a militant secularization of education, Mann and his cohorts waged a campaign to demonize the phenomenal private academies across the state, as well as the parents who sent their children there."