The poor, if their children did attend school, had to sign documents stating that they were "paupers" in order for their children to be admitted to poverty schools. Most institutions provided schooling only for privileged white boys. A small number of young men could go on to one of several colleges established in America, such as Harvard or Yale, to receive a more substantial, often specialized, education.
By the 1830s, Americans expressed a desire to improve the existing educational system. Reformers found the lack of universal education unsuitable for a growing democracy. In 1846, attorney and politician Horace Mann, the father of American public education, argued that public education was an obligation, "a worthy public expense" that reaped substantial benefits for an emerging industrialized and urban society. Mann argued that a solid public education ultimately meant more productive workers. Americans also believed that citizens needed an education in order to participate fully in the political and economic growth of the country. Reformers argued that schools should be free, paid for by taxes and state supported.
Common schools, or publicly financed elementary schools, gradually emerged in the northeast and midwestern United States, although even by the mid-nineteenth century, no state had a statewide school system and local districts ineptly managed their own.
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