Um... the American colonies introduced government funded universal education in the 1600s, before the Prussian system existed. The US never introduced a nationw

Um... the American colonies introduced government funded universal education in the 1600s, before the Prussian system existed. The US never introduced a nationwide curriculum like the Prussian system. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_School_Laws https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Massachusetts_School_Laws US federal coordination of educational activities was very weak. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Office_of_Education https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Office_of_Educ... The US government has never written any policy document identifying 'obedient factory workers' as a goal, in the sense you're talking about. When you went through school, were you trained to be an obedient factory worker, or did you get an education? The Soviet school system had an explicit goal of creating obedient factory workers. Was that somehow incompatible with higher education?