Horace Mann

One of the biggest leaders in the public school reform movement was Horace Mann of Massachusetts. In 1837 he became the first secretary of the Massachusetts Board of Education. In 12 years, Mann established teacher training programs and instituted curriculum reforms. He also doubled the money that the state spent on schools. Other states soon followed suit, and in the 1850's every state provided some form of publicly funded schools.

In response to the poor schooling systems in the early 1800's, Mann declared, "If we do not prepare children to become good citizens,...if we do not enrich their minds with knowledge, then our republic must go down to destruction, as others have gone before it."