The Development of Federal Activism in Education

Evidence of the Impact of School Reform on Systems Governance and Educational Bureaucracies in the United States

“…These federal education programs were based on New Deal assumptions that the great majority of the unemployed or impoverished were not personally to blame. Instead, structural inequalities, resulting from racial discrimination, unemployment or underemployment, low wages, lack of education, and inadequate transfer payments were considered to contribute to the high unemployment and poverty of a particular group of people (Kaestle & Smith, 1982; Kantor, 1991; Levin, 1982; Thomas, 1983). Differences between the educational experiences of Black urban students and their White counterparts, for example, were seen to derive from the racial isolation of Black students in urban schools and from the unequal resources available to students in urban schools, which contributed to high dropout rates, low achievement, and unemployment among Black students (Carson, 1962; Council of Economic Advisors, 1964; Harrington, 1962).…”

Education Reform and the Political Safeguards of Federalism

“…(E. DeBray 2006) As such, any federal representativeseeking to block federal education legislation could simply insert an amendment requiring integrated schools. However, the race issue was removed as a major obstacle to legislation when the Civil Rights Act of 1964 made funding contingent on desegregation efforts (Thomas 1983). In addition to segregationist southerners, Catholic constituents further complicated the Democratic Party's stance on federal aid to education.…”