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Educating Politics: The Transformation of Federal Education Policy 1965-2002
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Educating Politics:
The Transformation of Federal Education Policy 1965-2002
Patrick McGuinn
Government Department
Colby College
## email not listed ##
Abstract:
In recent years, education has risen to the very top of the national political agenda and
the federal role in schools has been dramatically transformed and expanded. This paper seeks to explain these developments in light of the country’s history of decentralized school governance and the longstanding opposition of liberals and conservatives to an active, reform-oriented federal role in education. More broadly, it demonstrates how the struggle to define the federal role in school reform played a central—though underappreciated—role in inter- and intra-party debates during the 1980s and 1990s over the appropriate role of the national government in promoting opportunity and social welfare. The increasing salience of education reform with the public led Clinton and the Democrats to make the issue a centerpiece of their New Democratic philosophy and their response to the conservative assault on federal government activism. George W. Bush and Republicans responded by making education the focal point of a more centrist rhetoric on social policy, compassionate conservatism. These political developments launched a new era of education policy in which the alliances, policies, and assumptions of the past forty years have been fundamentally transformed. Swing issues such as education are thus an important political phenomenon. Their unique characteristics facilitate major policy change even as they influence the direction of wider political debates and partisan conflict.
Note: This paper is drawn from a book manuscript entitled Freedom from Ignorance? Politics and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy 1965-2002 and is based on archival research, journalistic accounts, and interviews with 31 education policymakers, interest group representatives, and analysts.
Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the
American Political Science Association, September 2 - September 5, 2004.
Copyright by the American Political Science Association
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| | Authors: McGuinn, Patrick. |
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Educating Politics:
The Transformation of Federal Education Policy 1965-2002
Patrick McGuinn
Government Department
Colby College
## email not listed ##
Abstract:
In recent years, education has risen to the very top of the national political agenda and
the federal role in schools has been dramatically transformed and expanded. This paper seeks
to explain these developments in light of the country’s history of decentralized school
governance and the longstanding opposition of liberals and conservatives to an active, reform-
oriented federal role in education. More broadly, it demonstrates how the struggle to define
the federal role in school reform played a central—though underappreciated—role in inter-
and intra-party debates during the 1980s and 1990s over the appropriate role of the national
government in promoting opportunity and social welfare. The increasing salience of
education reform with the public led Clinton and the Democrats to make the issue a
centerpiece of their New Democratic philosophy and their response to the conservative assault
on federal government activism. George W. Bush and Republicans responded by making
education the focal point of a more centrist rhetoric on social policy, compassionate
conservatism. These political developments launched a new era of education policy in which
the alliances, policies, and assumptions of the past forty years have been fundamentally
transformed. Swing issues such as education are thus an important political phenomenon.
Their unique characteristics facilitate major policy change even as they influence the direction
of wider political debates and partisan conflict.
Note: This paper is drawn from a book manuscript entitled Freedom from Ignorance?
Politics and the Transformation of Federal Education Policy 1965-2002 and is based on
archival research, journalistic accounts, and interviews with 31 education policymakers,
interest group representatives, and analysts.
Prepared for delivery at the 2004 Annual Meeting of the
American Political Science Association, September 2 - September 5, 2004.
Copyright by the American Political Science Association
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