Nineteenth-Century Education According to West

Beginning in the i840s, a campaign developed to replace the diverse and largely private system by a system of so-called free schools, i.e., schools in which parents and others paid the cost indirectly by taxes rather than directly by fees. According to E. G. West, who has studied extensively the development of government's role in schooling, this campaign was not led by dissatisfied parents, but mainly by teachers and government officials. . . .under the spell of laissezfaire [Britain] hesitated a long time before allowing the state to intervene in education affairs, but finally, in i870, a system of government schools was not made compulsory until i88o, and fees were not generally abolished until i89i. In Britain, as in the United States, schooling was almost universal before the government took it over. Professor West has maintained persuasively that the government takeover in Britain, as in the United States, resulted from pressure by teachers, administrators, and well-meaning intellectuals, rather than parents. He concludes that the government takeover reduced the quality and diversity of schooling. 1

Economic history · Political science · American Constitutional Law and Politics · Educator Training and Historical Pedagogy · History · Religious Education and Schools · School Choice and Performance

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