Why was a formal education more important for urban americans than rural americas

Because most higher paying jobs in the cities required a formal education. Most people that lived in rural areas didn't need much of an education because they were farmers and gained more from farming than they did going to school.

a variant spelling of the word dote (british)

social contract theory, nearly as old as philosophy itself, is the view that persons' moral and/or political obligations are dependent upon a contract or agreement among them to form the society in which they liv