The reason why the state wants to control public education is simply for the purpose of social engineering and indoctrination of children with beliefs government officials think are important. From the introduction of state-run semicompulsory education in Massachusetts in the 1600′s to prosletyze children in the state’s official form of Protestantism to the late 19th century’s progressive goals, the theme has always been that absent state intervention, children would learn only the benighted superstitions that their parents believed. Only through the state schooling could all children be taught be the enlightened people in control of the state.