Attendance Is Mandatory: The Surprising History Of American Public Education

The American system of mandatory public education feels as old as the nation itself, but it is a radical and recent social experiment. Before its creation, schooling was a voluntary, chaotic patchwork of religious schools, private tutors, and frontier schoolhouses. This book reveals the dramatic, centuries-long battle to transform education from a private privilege into a government mandate.

The common school was sold as a noble equalizer, but its implementation was a story of social control and political power. Discover the true drivers behind compulsion, from the industrial need to forge a new workforce to the nativist fears of mass immigration. This history uncovers the surprising role the Ku Klux Klan played in shaping the secular, and segregated, classroom.

The public school became the primary battleground for the nation's soul. Follow the legal and social wars that defined the system, from the Sputnik crisis that reframed education as national defense to the landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision that sparked the violent struggle for integration. This book also traces the 40-year political war to abolish the Department of Education, a fight that continues to this day.

The 21st century has pushed this 19th-century model to the brink, from the high-stakes testing of No Child Left Behind to the massive backlash against Common Core. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the system's deep inequities and triggered an exodus as parents now demand more control. This book provides the essential history needed to understand the current war over school choice, parents' rights, and the uncertain future of public education itself.