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The first public school in America, the Boston Latin School was free for boys and became the model to show how a tax funded education might succeed. The school continues to this day. -
The ability to read the Bible was important to Puritans to foil Satan, the "old deluder". The law required towns of a certain size to hire a teacher.
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While the U.S. declared its independence in 1776 it wasn't until more than a decade later the constitution was adopted. However it did not explicitly guarantee the right to a free education and it would not be until further court rulings and legislation that would create the legal framework that have shaped education policy.
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Horace Mann is recognized as the "father of American education". He had access to a good education and was a driving force in providing that for all children. -
Indigenous American children were taken from their families and tribes and sent to "Indian schools" in an effort to be assimilated. This meant eliminating native languages and traditional beliefs as native populations had been called "savages". To this day, evidence of atrocities against native children continues to come to light as teams explore sites like the Genoa Indian School in central Nebraska. -
During the nation's darkest days of the Civil War, new opportunities arose through the Homestead Act and the Morrill Act. The latter created land grant universities which focused largely on agriculture. That emphasis continues to be seen at schools like the University of Nebraska-Lincoln which invests millions in agricultural research and also shares to farmers and families through Nebraska Extension, as the name implies, an extension of the university's land grant mission. -
The nation's high court ruled racial segregation on trains and in schools was acceptable with the legal basis "separate but equal'. Enslaved Africans may have been free after the Civil War but it would take decades to roll back Jim Crow laws and confront the legacy of racism. -
Prior to the mid-19th century most teachers were men but as industrialization and later the suffrage movement provided more opportunities for women to enter the workforce. There were few places acceptable for women to work and the classroom quickly became dominated by women. -
A landmark Supreme Court ruling found "separate but equal" was unconstitutional, leading to integration of schools. It also paved the way for further advancements in the Civil Rights Movement -
A year after the United States put a man in space, Pres. John F. Kennedy said, "We choose to go to the moon" as the space race was underway as American schools emphasized science and technology needed to put a man on the moon, something that would happen by the end of the decade. -
If a school receives federal funds Title IX restricts discrimination based on sex for any educational program or activity. This helped widen the door for girls and women to be able to more involved with academic opportunities and extracurricular activities. -
Accountability and standards moved from buzzwords to policy as schools were required to show "adequate yearly progress". Pres. George W. Bush is best remembered for wars in Iraq and Afghanistan following the attacks of September 11, 2001. On that date, Bush was reading to kids as part of an effort to promote research-backed approaches to literacy. That was quickly overshadowed by the "war on terror" but the new era of school accountability became law under Bush. -
A few months after the novel coronavirus was discovered, the COVID-19 pandemic was growing and schools began to shut down. Many children began virtual learning. In Nebraska most went back to in-person education that fall but in many large American cities, online learning continued for much of the following school year resulted in lost learning opportunities.
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As students went back to school amid the COVID-19 pandemic, some parents objected to mask mandates. Newly formed groups like "Moms for Liberty" and "Protect Nebraska Children" moved on from pandemic policies to oppose a "woke agenda", turning their attention to social emotional learning and Critical Race Theory which were perceived as liberal indoctrination by some conservative parents and motivated some newcomers to seek office while states like Florida passed the "Stop Woke Act".