(Answered): Follow up from The Reformers Revolution

As you discussed, the revival of the Second Great Awakening sparked a spirit of social reform in America. One of the first areas to benefit from this was education. I’d like to explore that a bit more. This is a follow up question from your last post The Reformers Revolution. How important is a free public education to a republic? If it is not important, why did it begin? Is it important to a republic to have compulsory public education?