**Modern** K-12 schooling has its beginnings in the mid-1800s when states enacted its compulsory attendance laws and laws for compulsory and single-payer funding.
"**Modern** K-12 schooling has its beginnings in the mid-1800s when states enacted its compulsory attendance laws and laws for compulsory and single-payer funding." Perhaps where you live. Where I grew up, local control was still the rule up until "desegregation". Yes, there was some interference from the state, but the president of the school board ran the schools pretty much as he (rarely she) saw fit.