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The Political Origins Of Secular Public Education: The New York City School Controversy, 1840-1842, Ian C. Bartrum

Ian C Bartrum

THE ORIGINS OF SECULAR PUBLIC EDUCATION: THE NEW YORK SCHOOL CONTROVERSY, 1840-1842 As the title suggests, this article explores the historical origins of secular public education, with a particular focus on the controversy surrounding the Catholic petitions for school funding in nineteenth-century New York City. The article first examines the development of Protestant nonsectarian common schools in the northeast, then turns to the New York controversy in detail, and finally explores that controversy’s legacy in state constitutions and the Supreme Court. It is particularly concerned with two ideas generated in New York: (1) Bishop John Hughes’ objection to nonsectarianism as …