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The movement for compulsory public education (in other words, prohibiting private schools and requiring all children to attend public schools) in the United States began in the early 1920s. It started with 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.[1] 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.[2]
The movement gained some legislative attention when a 1920 Michigan referendum for compulsory public education received 40% of the vote.[3] 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.[4]
The movement experienced a post–World War II revival when some Americans began to fear the power of the Catholic Church and wanted to ensure public funds were not finding their way to parochial schools.[5] Some compared parochial schools to segregation and accused them of hindering democracy.[6]
- ^ Slawson, D. (2005) The Department of Education Battle, 1918-1932. University Of Notre Dame Press
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Blanshardwas invoked but never defined (see the help page). - ^ McGreevy, p. ?