I couldn't make this up if I tried...

This is the partial text from the Massachusetts General School Law of 1647, also known as the "Old Deluder Satan Law":

"It being one chief project of that old deluder, Satan, to keep men from the knowledge of the Scriptures...It is therefore ordered that every township in this jurisdiction...shall forthwith appoint one within their town to teach all such children as shall resort to him to write and read, whose wages shall be paid either by the parents or masters of such children, or by the inhabitants..."

Ironic to think about the origins, isn't it? Here's more info.