Education in America can trace its roots all the way back to the Puritans of the 1600s. The first public school was established in Boston, Massachusetts and allowed only boys. Eventually, the school system grew and became the recognized K-12 system that is familiar to Americans today. In the 1960s, the first magnet school opened with the aim to increase diversity in the nation’s public school system. Magnet schools differ from other district public schools in two major ways.