9
Though Reagan was not successful in eliminating the federal role in education or
public support for federal leadership in education reform
9
, he was very successful in
challenging the effectiveness of the equity regime at the heart of ESEA and in discrediting the
New Deal/Great Society welfare state more generally. The 1980 and 1984 presidential
elections had centered on foreign policy and Republican critiques of Great Society-style
social welfare policies. By forcing Democratic nominees to defend an increasingly costly and
unpopular federal welfare state, Reagan did not have to offer a specific agenda on domestic
issues like education. Growing public attention to school reform and emerging doubts about
the Republican commitment to equal opportunity would eventually increase the political
importance of the Democrats’ advantage on the education issue and force the Republicans to
develop a more substantive response. These developments altered the political dynamics
around education and started the country on a road to major reform, albeit one that would
have many significant twists and turns and take almost two decades to complete.
From Devolution to National Goals in Education
Responding to these pressures, Reagan’s Republican successor George H.W. Bush
made a pledge to be an education president a prominent part of his 1988 presidential
campaign and the issue became the centerpiece of his domestic agenda and of his claim to be
a kinder, gentler Republican. In contrast to Reagan, Bush embraced a federal role in
education reform and helped to legitimize the idea that the country’s historically decentralized
9 In a clear rejection of the Reagan approach to the federal role in education, 71% of respondents surveyed at the
end of his administration thought that the next president should start with new policies rather than continue in the
same direction. Harris poll conducted September 1-6, 1988. Accession number 0060945, question number 3.
Retrieved from Roper Center at University of Connecticut Public Opinion Online, http://web.lexis-
nexis.com/universe/form/academic/s_roper.html.
Convention