Compulsory public education
Encyclopedia
The movement for compulsory public education in the United States began in the early 1920s. It started as a disorganized Catholic opposition to the Smith-Towner bill, a bill that would eventually establish the National Education Association
and provide federal funds to public schools. Eventually, it became the movement to mandate public schooling and dissolve parochial and other private schools. The movement focused on the public's fear of immigrants and the need to Americanize; it had anti-Catholic overtones and found support from groups like the Ku Klux Klan
.
The movement gained some legislative attention when a 1920 Michigan referendum for compulsory public education received 40% of the vote. In 1922 Oregon passed a similar referendum. Eventually this law was challenged and unanimously struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Pierce v. Society of Sisters
.
The movement experienced a post-World War II
revival when members of the elite began to fear the power of the Catholic Church and wanted to ensure public funds were not finding their way to parochial schools. Some compared parochial schools to segregation and accused them of hindering democracy.
supported the movement. In Michigan the movement achieved a referendum on the subject in 1920, but won less than 40 percent of the vote. In Oregon a similar measure passed in 1922. Campaigning for it, the Ku Klux Klan “circulated a tract that pictured a grinning, torch-wielding Catholic bishop triumphantly departing from a burning public school house whose teacher rang the school bell one last time as he lay dying in the vestibule, mourned by crying children.”
In Pierce v. Society of Sisters
(1925) the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down Oregon's law. The decision was widely hailed by progressive elites such as the presidents of Yale University
and the University of Texas, the Journal of Education, John Dewey
, future supreme court justice Felix Frankfurter
, and the National Education Association.
became concerned with the power of the Catholic Church. They did not want it to receive public funds via its schools. Some scholars have argued that the 1947 Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education
, which created the legal doctrine of separation of church and state, was motivated by anti-Catholic feelings. That opinion was authored by Justice Hugo L. Black, who was an admirer of Blanshard.
Some progressives compared parochial education to racial segregation. "You cannot practice democratic living in segregated schools," said one Columbia professor, referring to Catholic schools. At a debate at Harvard Law School a Methodist Bishop called parochial schools un-American. In 1952 prominent educators openly attacked "nonpublic schools" at a convention of public school superintendents in Boston. They were following the lead of their own president and Harvard’s president, James B. Conant.
National Education Association
The National Education Association is the largest professional organization and largest labor union in the United States, representing public school teachers and other support personnel, faculty and staffers at colleges and universities, retired educators, and college students preparing to become...
and provide federal funds to public schools. Eventually, it became the movement to mandate public schooling and dissolve parochial and other private schools. The movement focused on the public's fear of immigrants and the need to Americanize; it had anti-Catholic overtones and found support from groups like the Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
.
The movement gained some legislative attention when a 1920 Michigan referendum for compulsory public education received 40% of the vote. In 1922 Oregon passed a similar referendum. Eventually this law was challenged and unanimously struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court in Pierce v. Society of Sisters
Pierce v. Society of Sisters
Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, , was an early 20th century United States Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded coverage of the Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case has been cited as a precedent in...
.
The movement experienced a post-World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
revival when members of the elite began to fear the power of the Catholic Church and wanted to ensure public funds were not finding their way to parochial schools. Some compared parochial schools to segregation and accused them of hindering democracy.
First Wave: 1920s
In the 1920s the idea of compulsory public education gained traction in various states, largely as a reaction against parochial schools. The Ku Klux KlanKu Klux Klan
Ku Klux Klan, often abbreviated KKK and informally known as the Klan, is the name of three distinct past and present far-right organizations in the United States, which have advocated extremist reactionary currents such as white supremacy, white nationalism, and anti-immigration, historically...
supported the movement. In Michigan the movement achieved a referendum on the subject in 1920, but won less than 40 percent of the vote. In Oregon a similar measure passed in 1922. Campaigning for it, the Ku Klux Klan “circulated a tract that pictured a grinning, torch-wielding Catholic bishop triumphantly departing from a burning public school house whose teacher rang the school bell one last time as he lay dying in the vestibule, mourned by crying children.”
In Pierce v. Society of Sisters
Pierce v. Society of Sisters
Pierce v. Society of Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary, , was an early 20th century United States Supreme Court decision that significantly expanded coverage of the Due Process Clause in the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The case has been cited as a precedent in...
(1925) the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously struck down Oregon's law. The decision was widely hailed by progressive elites such as the presidents of Yale University
Yale University
Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...
and the University of Texas, the Journal of Education, John Dewey
John Dewey
John Dewey was an American philosopher, psychologist and educational reformer whose ideas have been influential in education and social reform. Dewey was an important early developer of the philosophy of pragmatism and one of the founders of functional psychology...
, future supreme court justice Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter
Felix Frankfurter was an Associate Justice of the United States Supreme Court.-Early life:Frankfurter was born into a Jewish family on November 15, 1882, in Vienna, Austria, then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire in Europe. He was the third of six children of Leopold and Emma Frankfurter...
, and the National Education Association.
Second Wave: 1945–60
After World War II some progressives such as The Nation editor Paul BlanshardPaul Blanshard
Paul Beecher Blanshard was a controversial American author, assistant editor of The Nation magazine, lawyer, socialist, secular humanist, and from 1949 an outspoken critic of Catholicism....
became concerned with the power of the Catholic Church. They did not want it to receive public funds via its schools. Some scholars have argued that the 1947 Supreme Court decision Everson v. Board of Education
Everson v. Board of Education
Everson v. Board of Education, 330 U.S. 1 was a landmark decision of the United States Supreme Court which applied the religion clauses in the country's Bill of Rights to state as well as federal law...
, which created the legal doctrine of separation of church and state, was motivated by anti-Catholic feelings. That opinion was authored by Justice Hugo L. Black, who was an admirer of Blanshard.
Some progressives compared parochial education to racial segregation. "You cannot practice democratic living in segregated schools," said one Columbia professor, referring to Catholic schools. At a debate at Harvard Law School a Methodist Bishop called parochial schools un-American. In 1952 prominent educators openly attacked "nonpublic schools" at a convention of public school superintendents in Boston. They were following the lead of their own president and Harvard’s president, James B. Conant.