In 1848, Horace Mann, the legendary education reformer, observed that “education, beyond all other devises of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men – the balance-wheel of the social machinery.” Mann was reporting on the reality of education as much as positing a philosophy of education. Even before the establishment of our constitutional government, education played an important role in an American’s ability to move up the social ladder. Born at the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder, Alexander Hamilton and Benjamin Franklin used education to climb to the top. Education was also vitally significant in the development of the social order. An educated populace was deemed to be necessary for the survival of a young democratic society.