Here is a nice op-ed by Thomas Hunt and James Carper, historians of education and authors of “The Dissenting Tradition in American Education.” They argue,
Contrary to popular belief, the US has never had one universally accepted system of public education. American history is full of dissenters who acted on conscience ? and faced opposition for it.
Hunt and Carper discuss schools created by Roman Catholics and German Lutherans, two of the largest groups to reject common schools. As they likely point out in their book, resistance to common schools was also prevalent among working class Northerners, middle class Southerners, and a host of immigrant groups.
