There have been numerous amounts of controversies surrounding historical and present goals of public schools throughout the years. It has always been a common goal in some sense that all children should be taught a common instruction that instills moral values, a common cultural identity, and civic values. In the 1770’s Thomas Jefferson, believed that schools were the main focus for political, social and economic improvements, along with educating and creating qualified candidates for a republican government. He “suggested that education could provide an equal opportunity for all non-slave citizens to gain political office. All citizens were to be given an equal chance to develop their abilities and to advance in the political hierarchy” (Spring, 2014, p 11). It was from his ideas that we can assume that the school systems is fair in its judgments which means that the judgment on each student in the program is based solely on talent performed by students regardless of their race, religion, dress, and social class. Jefferson also proposed a very limited curriculum that consisted on reading, writing, and arithmetic. He believed that the students would get their political education from reading newspapers, however that method was always questionable as the newspapers were censored and could be thought as only allowing education on one’s political views and ideas. Contrary to Jefferson’s methods, Horace Mann believed that all children we to be in the same common schools with the same common curriculum despite any gender, religion, culture, or socioeconomic status. He believed that with a combination “of social mingling in school and the teaching of a common political philosophy would establish, Mann hoped, shared political beliefs that would ensure the survival of the U.S. government” (Spring, 2014, p 12). Both of these goals and methods that Jefferson and Mann believed in established a beginning foundation to what we now have as models to ensure equality of...