Hardly anyone disputes the contention that the modern public school is seriously flawed.
Test scores continue to be poor while metal detectors are found in the more violent schools.
Welfare-state liberals argue that schools in poor areas need more money to place them on an equal footing with their richer counterparts. Conservatives usually reply that the solution is a voucher system that would break the government monopoly on education by restoring choice and control to parents. Such admiration is misplaced. Often local governments would provide modest aid to schools, albeit in an unsystematic manner. It is impossible to review the period in question and fail to conclude that the drive for public education was largely a response to the huge influx of poor, non-Protestant immigrants.