There are a whole bunch of people here who apparently think that Thomas
Jefferson was an ardent socialist. (Can you believe that Marxist/commie
actually thought that tax-supported schools should be a cornerstone of
democracy? Shocking, I tell you, shocking)
http://www.jeffersonlegacy.org/outreach.htm

"Jefferson was the prophet of the American faith in the powers of education
to secure the freedom and the happiness of the people. As early as 1778, in
his Virginia Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge, Jefferson set
forth a comprehensive plan of public education broadly based in primary
schools, rising as in a pyramid through secondary schools, with a state
university at the apex. The dual mission was, first, “to illuminate, as far
as practicable, the minds of the people at large,” and second, to ensure
that “those persons whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue” —
Jefferson’s “natural aristocracy” — should be educated to the limits of
their abilities in order the better to serve the mass of citizens.

Quite beyond its practical benefits to the individual, education at all
levels had distinctly moral, social, and civic purposes. It should
cultivate virtue, teach the obligations of individuals to each other, and,
above all, raise up the informed and responsible citizens a democratic
government required. Regrettably, Jefferson’s plan never came to fruition
in Virginia; and although his influence was felt in other states, he finally
had to be satisfied with the achievement of the state university — the apex
of the pyramid without the foundation in the schools.

Jefferson’s faith in democracy was, at bottom, a faith in education.
Believing, as he said, “that the people are the only safe depositories of
their own liberty,” it was essential that they should be educated to a
certain degree and prepared to take part in public affairs; moreover,
government should be structured in ways that invited widespread citizen
participation. Empowerment of the people depended upon education. It was,
therefore, a paramount responsibility of democratic government.
Tax-supported public education assumed common schools shaping a common
citizenship and a common culture.

After his retirement as President, Jefferson preached that the future of
democracy hung from two hooks: first, general education to enable every
citizen to judge for himself how best to secure freedom and happiness, and
second, the establishment everywhere of “little republics,” which he called
“wards,” and compared to New England town meetings, to encourage due
participation in public affairs. The wards should be responsible for the
public schools. Jefferson distrusted concentrated power.

“What,” he asked, “has destroyed liberty and the rights of man in every
government under the sun? The generalizing and concentrating of all cares in
one body.” Where power is dispersed, and common schooling is the rule, every
citizen may come to identify his own interest with the interests of the
whole. With impassioned eloquence, Jefferson declared: “Where every man …
feels he is a participator in the government of affairs, not merely at an
election one day in the year, but every day; where there shall not be a man
in the State who will not be a member of some one of its councils, great or
small, he will let the heart be torn out of his body sooner than his powers
be wrested from him by a Caesar or Bonaparte.”

If Jefferson was right, the health, indeed the salvation, of American
democracy depends upon the making of informed, responsible, and
participating citizens. Civic education, therefore, ought to be a central
theme in the conduct and curriculum of schools. This includes many things,
from the integration of the children of a pluralistic society in a shared
culture to thorough instruction in the history and workings of American
democracy.

In recent years, the achievement of scientific, mathematical, and cultural
literacy have been set forth as key goals of K-12 education. Civic
literacy, however, has been neglected. Yet in the vision of Thomas
Jefferson — the vision as well of Horace Mann and John Dewey among eminent
American educators — civic literacy is fundamental, morally, socially,
politically. By restoring the iron thread of civic learning and civic
purpose in our schools, we help to restore faith in American ideals and
institutions. The philosopher Santayana once remarked that in America “the
common citizen must be something of a saint and something of a hero.” There
is a Jeffersonian ring to that. It encapsulates a worthy idea."

Quoted from a letter to American educators from Merrill D. Peterson,
Chairman of The Thomas Jefferson Commemoration Commission.