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System of free schools for all children in Virginia supported through taxes.
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Massachusetts requires all towns with 500 or more families to set up free, public high schools.
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The Federal Office of Education is established to help states develop stronger schools.
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The Michigan Supreme Court, in a case known as “The Kalamazoo Case,” upholds the right of local governments to tax its citizens to pay for public education.
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Congress passes the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act, known as the GI Bill of Rights, which provides World War II veterans with unemployment benefits, home loans and education grants for those who want to con- tinue their education after military service.
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In Brown v. Board of Education, the court holds that racially segregated schools are inherently unequal. This is most important because of the advancements that have been made in US Education due to Integration.
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Congress authorizes the National Defense Education Act, which provides federal aid to state and local school districts to improve the teaching of math, science and foreign languages.
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Designed to help break the cycle of poverty, the federal pro- gram Head Start provides education enrichment for low-income preschoolers so they can enter school with similar skills as higher-income students.
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The law has a significant impact in equalizing educational opportunities for women, particularly in athletic programs.http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/docs/tix_dis.html
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In Robinson v. Cahill and Abbott v. Burke, the New Jersey Supreme Court rules that the inadequate educational opportunities provided to students in poor urban school districts violate the state constitution’s guarantee of a “thorough and efficient” education.
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The National Commission on Excellence in Education releases “A Nation at Risk,” a report highly critical of the declining performance of students in U.S. public schools.http://www2.ed.gov/pubs/NatAtRisk/index.html
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Chris Whittle begins Edison Schools Inc., a private firm that contracts with school districts to manage all aspects of their schools: administration, cur- riculum and technology.
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The concept of tuition vouchers gains traction as a way to help par- ents of children in “failing” schools and low-income parents transfer their children to better schools. But be- cause parents often choose religious schools, the programs are challenged as violating the First Amendment’s mandate on separation of church and state.
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In an effort to increase pub- lic school choice, Minnesota adopts legislation that allows the creation of public charter schools – schools that receive public funds but are run sepa- rately from the larger school system and are not required to meet all of its regulations.
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President George W. Bush signs the No Child Left Behind Act, a sweeping education reform law that requires states to develop a plan to identify poorly performing public schools and establish educational standards that all students must meet.http://www2.ed.gov/nclb/landing.jhtml
