"Industrious, moral, and well-disposed people, loving and caring for their children, and with no conscious disloyal purposes, are among us in large and influential numbers, who refuse to send to the public schools" from the Report of the Committee on State School Systems: Compulsory Education 1891

"[early] compulsory education laws established two prerogatives of the state: ...to lay down minimal standards for education of children; ...to compel the establishment of two minimal educational provisions — teachers and schools" in A History of Compulsory Education Laws (Katz, 1976)

"Before the passage of the laws of 1642 and 1648 in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, the concept of compulsory education was embedded in the time-honored parental obligation to bring up one's children properly as good Christians" in A History of Compulsory Education Laws (Katz, 1976)

From the Report of the Committee on State School Systems 1891: "Foreign influence has begun a system of colonization with a purpose of preserving foreign languages and traditions and destroying distinctive Americanism". Their response: "a compulsory education law has been enacted to protect society"

"...the demands of a growing corporate state cried out for large numbers of punctual, hardworking, and obedient workers. It was in this context that compulsory schooling laws would be both implemented and socially accepted..." in "A History of Compulsory Education Laws" by Michael S. Katz