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[Clansgian AT wmconnect.com]

> We've had ps around for a long time. Could you perhaps supply sources
> for these statistics?

Not so long as you might think.  The first compulsory attendance law was in 
Mass. in 1852.  The schools before that resembled mandatory PS in no way 
whatever.  Most states were decades before they followed suit.

Through the history of PS, the more we spent, the more we regarded teachers 
as "professionals", the more we made attendance compulsory, the lower the 
rate 
of litteracy.   Here is a pretty good summary of it:


http://www.johntaylorgatto.com/chapters/3b.htm