Historical Examples of Private Education in the United States and Britain

Miscellaneous History
1

I’m writing a research paper attempting to prove that education can be brought to the poor masses through private means. It shouldn’t be too difficult, but I need lots of strong examples. For various reasons I’m specifically looking for examples in America and Britain before the 20th century. I figured mises.org was the place to go for people who would be more than willing and able to help. I would greatly appreciate any help you can offer.

2

ALL education in the US was private before about 1850. And public education wasnt the norm until after the Civil War.

Also, public schools were originally established in states with established religions, in order to educate people about the religion.

A good source explaining this, although he focuses on the religion question, not the education question, is Religious Literacy: What Every American Needs to Know and Doesnt. by Stephen Prothero

3

John Stossel covered this in his column and on his show.

4

Thanks for the responses, but let me clarify: I’m simply looking for specific examples of privately provided education in the US and Britain pre-20th century (and for private reasons as well–while government didn’t run the schools in the US before the Civil War state governments did mandate their existence as well as certain requirements to be met in some cases). Not an argument as to why private education is superior to public education, but simply proof that government assistance is unnecessary for education to reach the poor masses.

5

Coase,

On a strange coincidence, I now have to do the exact same investigation you posted in here. I suppose that you were successful getting this information from some other sources. So… could you hook me up???

Any examples showing that government assistance is unnecessary for affordable education??

I would really appreciate it.

Thanks

6

James Tooley appears to be an authority on private provision of education. I’ve only read his contribution to the Independent Institute’s The Voluntary City, which documents British and American education in the 19th century and efforts in India today, but here’s a CATO paper regarding education in India, Ghana, Nigeria, and Kenya. I’m also interested to see what Coase found on his own.

The role of the free market in the fall of the state
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http://schoolsucks.podomatic.com/

This guy is a wonderful source, I don’t remember which episodes he specifically has but I do recall episode 6 being especially enlightening. You also might want to get in touch with him for specific sources I’m sure he’d be more than happy to help you

brett@schoolsucksproject.com