George Clinton.

New York passed a compulsory education law in 1665 which required all children and servants to be instructed in law and religion as well as reading, writing, and arithmetic. As in other colonies, most children and servants would be instructed at home; the only children sent to schools would be those destined for the ministry. In 1787 New York established a state board of regents to oversee the state's educational system, and in 1795 Gov. George Clinton had noted with pride the "general establishment and liberal endowment of academies" yet could not overlook the way this system conferred education only "on the children of the opulent" and excluded "the great proportion of the community" from the advantages of education. To overcome this persistent class barrier to education, Clinton advised "the establishment of the common school throughout the state."

Statute.

The legislature on 9 April...