America wasn't the first place in the world with public education.. god even sparta had it, give credit where it is due, I don't feel the need to say well done christianity for something a christian did. That would be like saying well done south africa for the heart transplant...

Actually the education reform he pushed for was not solely the instruction of religion. Multiple fields in medicine, law, mathematics, etc. were all advocated within a classical model like that of the Greeks and Romans. There's a difference between you not liking the intention (i.e. to become a better Christian) of pushing for this reform of public schooling and recognizing that public education came about as a result of this reformation.

That may be the case but that was irrelevant to my point. Modern public schooling evolved from these religious beginnings and some credit is due to religion in this regard. No other secular means pushed for a way in public education the way it occurred in the Reformation.

Yes and he was also Anti-Semetic. The issue here is about crediting the intial step toward public education. Quoting him being a racist or irrational doesn't change that fact.

For public schooling or contributions that, absent public schooling, would only be available to the elite?

And the source for this is...? Oh and referencing a mere quote where he talks about the value of education would be meaningless. The topic is on establishing public schools -- especially at a time where there was no such thing.

He started a new public secondary school that didn't teach religion, called the American Academy. This eventually replaced the Latin schools previously used, attendance went from 6% to 85%, and became the american high school.  He also founded the University of PA, and the first library in the US.

what mere quote are you talking about?

I see Martin Luther as a hero of free thought.
While his views are fairly repugnant by our modern standards, he made a huge step forward.
He effectively broke many of the Catholic Church's controls over people by encouraging them to read the Bible for themselves.
This partly got ordinary people reading and thinking (a HUGE step forward) and partly broke a lot of people free from the control of the Catholic Church.

As I understand it, this was one of the events that brought us out of the Dark Ages and into the Renaissance.
(I think that the other major event was the invention of the printing press - another think that increased reading amongst people.)

Shows nothing in regards to martin Luther really, but place like japan had by the start of 1603 a national education system, and many Europeans where amazed to find the populations literacy rate was around 80% when they began having contact with Japan in the early 1800's. With that said, sure education in Europe had help from the catholic church, not so much Luther, as in 1119 the church had ordered that even the poor get education and the church would pay for it, although with this said, there were secular universities to attend, the oldest I believe is the University of Bologna. However I digress. every society has different forms of education that arose eventually to include the general population. In the states the man behind it was Thomas Paine, although his idea of a national education system wouldn't pan out until the late 1800's, even the Incas and Aztecs had education for the masses, although the elite or upper society got taught differently than the general population.

India by the 18th century as well had wide spread public education system and much of the population was educated. However yes in Europe the education was conducted by the church, oddly enough the church had a massive influence over the population and the government, however does this mean modern education is due to the church strictly? No, there are many others that had influences regarding the public education system however that varies from country to country.