Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and Reds
When they voted for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB), conservative members of Congress embraced an extraordinary intrusion by the federal government into the affairs of the nation's school districts, which for most of American history had largely governed themselves. The new law inst...
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Oxford University Press
2011
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| author | Davies, G |
| author_facet | Davies, G |
| author_sort | Davies, G |
| collection | OXFORD |
| description | When they voted for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB), conservative members of Congress embraced an extraordinary intrusion by the federal government into the affairs of the nation's school districts, which for most of American history had largely governed themselves. The new law instructed states to ensure that all public school children achieve competency in English, math, and science by the year 2014, and threatened them with penalties should they fall short. That conservatives should have supported NCLB reflected, among other factors, the degree to which the politics of education in the early 21st century were framed by a civil rights paradigm, according to which arguments about local control, or about the constitutional propriety of a particular federal initiative, or about the capacity of the federal government to achieve its stated objectives, were easily trumped by arguments about the fundamental rights of all children to educational opportunity. The ultimate origins of that paradigm lie in the tremendous changes in the American political system that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. This chapter explores the previous world of conservative education politics, a world now long gone. Now, conservatives as well as liberals embrace tough federal mandates and penalties in the name of educational opportunity. Back then, liberals as well as conservatives protested their devotion to the hallowed principle of local control. In that environment, the challenge for liberals was to persuade conservatives that federal aid was compatible with this principle, or that a pressing national emergency compelled Washington to intervene. Generally, though, they failed. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:43:40Z |
| format | Book section |
| id | oxford-uuid:83e8199e-ce34-41e1-a5a4-aacdd07e6b35 |
| institution | University of Oxford |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-07T00:43:40Z |
| publishDate | 2011 |
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| spelling | oxford-uuid:83e8199e-ce34-41e1-a5a4-aacdd07e6b352022-03-26T21:47:26ZEducation Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and RedsBook sectionhttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_3248uuid:83e8199e-ce34-41e1-a5a4-aacdd07e6b35Symplectic Elements at OxfordOxford University Press2011Davies, GWhen they voted for the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002 (NCLB), conservative members of Congress embraced an extraordinary intrusion by the federal government into the affairs of the nation's school districts, which for most of American history had largely governed themselves. The new law instructed states to ensure that all public school children achieve competency in English, math, and science by the year 2014, and threatened them with penalties should they fall short. That conservatives should have supported NCLB reflected, among other factors, the degree to which the politics of education in the early 21st century were framed by a civil rights paradigm, according to which arguments about local control, or about the constitutional propriety of a particular federal initiative, or about the capacity of the federal government to achieve its stated objectives, were easily trumped by arguments about the fundamental rights of all children to educational opportunity. The ultimate origins of that paradigm lie in the tremendous changes in the American political system that occurred during the 1960s and 1970s. This chapter explores the previous world of conservative education politics, a world now long gone. Now, conservatives as well as liberals embrace tough federal mandates and penalties in the name of educational opportunity. Back then, liberals as well as conservatives protested their devotion to the hallowed principle of local control. In that environment, the challenge for liberals was to persuade conservatives that federal aid was compatible with this principle, or that a pressing national emergency compelled Washington to intervene. Generally, though, they failed. |
| spellingShingle | Davies, G Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and Reds |
| title | Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and Reds |
| title_full | Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and Reds |
| title_fullStr | Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and Reds |
| title_full_unstemmed | Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and Reds |
| title_short | Education Policy from the New Deal to the Great Society: The Three Rs-Race, Religion, and Reds |
| title_sort | education policy from the new deal to the great society the three rs race religion and reds |
| work_keys_str_mv | AT daviesg educationpolicyfromthenewdealtothegreatsocietythethreersracereligionandreds |