Alva Review-Courier -

Horace Mann was a successful politician when he set out to spread the concept of publicly funded education throughout the United States.

The Massachusetts family into which Mann was born in 1796 was one of poor farmers. Consequently, he received only a cursory formal education while growing to adulthood.

But he read voraciously at the local public library, and in 1816 he enrolled in Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. He graduated three years later at the top of his class.

Later, Mann attended a law school in Massachusetts and was admitted to that state’s bar association in 1823.

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