The question of how Whig policies affected the early development of common schools has received little examination in either political or educational histories. There is evidence, however, that Whig party politics did influence early educational reformers. This paper considers the influence of Whig party politics on the emergence of state systems of common schools from the 1830s through the 1850s. The Whig Party supported the common schools in their formative years and nearly all of the prominent early educators identified politically with that party. This paper examines the careers of three prominent creators or reformers of state public school systems. Horace Mann (Massachusetts), Henry Barnard (Connecticut and Rhode Island), and Calvin Henderson Wiley (South Carolina), all were elected to political office as Whigs, and their political careers are illustrative of the centrality of Whig politics to the rise of common schools.