Quote Originally Posted by Syme View Post

"I... [proposed] three distinct grades of education, reaching all classes. 1. Elementary schools for all children generally, rich and poor. 2. Colleges for a middle degree of instruction, calculated for the common purposes of life and such as should be desirable for all who were in easy circumstances. And 3d. an ultimate grade for teaching the sciences generally and in their highest degree... The expenses of [the elementary] schools should be borne by the inhabitants of the county, every one in proportion to his general tax-rate. This would throw on wealth the education of the poor."
--Thomas Jefferson in his autobiography, 1821

"The less wealthy people,... by the bill for a general education, would be qualified to understand their rights, to maintain them, and to exercise with intelligence their parts in self-government; and all this would be effected without the violation of a single natural right of any one individual citizen."
--also from Thomas Jefferson's autobiography

"I think by far the most important bill in our whole code, is that for the diffusion of knowledge among the people. No other sure foundation can be devised for the preservation of freedom and happiness... The tax which will be paid for this purpose is not more than the thousandth part of what will be paid to kings, priests and nobles who will rise up among us if we leave the people in ignorance."
--Thomas Jefferson, 1786

"[No] tax can be called that which we give to our children in the most valuable of all forms, that of instruction... An addition to our contributions almost insensible... in fact, will not be felt as a burden, because applied immediately and visibly to the good of our children."
--Thomas Jefferson in a note to the Elementary School Act, 1817

"My bill proposes, 1. Elementary schools in every county, which shall place every householder within three miles of a school. 2. District colleges, which shall place every father within a day's ride of a college where he may dispose of his son. 3. An university in a healthy and central situation... To all of which is added a selection from the elementary schools of subjects of the most promising genius, whose parents are too poor to give them further education, to be carried at the public expense through the colleges and university."
--Thomas Jefferson writing to M. Correa de Serra, 1817

Libertarians like to try to paint Thomas Jefferson as a minarchist because of quotes like the one you gave, but the fact is that although he may have sometimes expressed minarchist philosophical sentiments, he was no minarchist in practice and clearly believed that government monies could be put to legitimate use in fields like public education. His conception of the proper role of government did not stop at the defense of the populace, it included other things beyond that. Next time, try to find out a little more about it.
Weird, I wasn't able to find any of those quotes. Well I guess I misjudged the man.