<P> In the deep south (Georgia and South Carolina), schooling was carried on by primarily by private venture teachers and a hodgepodge of publicly funded projects . In the colony of Georgia, at least ten grammar schools were in operation by 1770, many taught by ministers . The Bethesda Orphan House educated children . Dozens of private tutors and teachers advertised their service in newspapers . A study of women's signatures indicates a high degree of literacy in areas with schools . In South Carolina, scores of school projects were advertised in the South Carolina Gazette beginning in 1732 . Although it is difficult to know how many ads yielded successful schools, many of the ventures advertised repeatedly over years, suggesting continuity . </P> <P> After the American Revolution, Georgia and South Carolina tried to start small public universities . Wealthy families sent their sons North to college . In Georgia public county academies for white students became more common, and after 1811 South Carolina opened a few free "common schools" to teach reading, writing and arithmetic to whites . </P> <P> Republican governments during the Reconstruction era established the first public school systems to be supported by general taxes . Both whites and blacks would be admitted, but legislators agreed on racially segregated schools . (The few integrated schools were located in New Orleans). </P> <P> Particularly after white Democrats regained control of the state legislatures in former Confederate states, they consistently underfunded public schools for blacks which continued until 1954 when the United States Supreme Court declared state laws establishing separate public schools for black and white students to be unconstitutional . </P>

Who created the south's first public school systems