In 1980, under President Carter, the Department of Education was created. Promoting education to department level affirmed the growing involvement of the federal government in that policy arena. This growing federal influence crossed party lines. While Carter, a Democrat, created the Department of Education, it was under Ronald Reagan, a Republican, that the "A Nation At Risk" study was financed and published. The warnings found in "A Nation At Risk" became the rationale for continued and expansion of Washington D.C.s role in public schools. In addition, the 1980s saw the rise and growth of the charter school and homeschooling movements as a means to address the failure of public, especially inner city, schools.
About this same time some communities experimented with "vouchers" and tax credits for parents who wanted to send their children to an alternative school. Concern over the quality of education and falling test scores prompted these efforts. Many reform efforts such as these came under attack from teacher unions and progressive politicians and "think tanks." Unions were concerned about teacher job security and the fact that many students were using vouchers to attend charter schools, most of which were union free. Progressive groups opposed these measures based on equity issues. They pointed out that such programs benefitted the middle and upper income students. It is difficult to determine the truth of these criticisms as there are studies that point both directions. Generally, the argument against vouchers is that socioeconomically disadvantaged students in public schools.suffer because money is siphoned away from those schools to finance the voucher effort. Although a recent Harvard-Brookings study showed that low income African American students who took advantage of vouchers to attend a private high school had a college enrollment rate 24% higher than those that did not.
At the turn of the century, some states, most notably Florida and Washington D.C., passed legislation creating "opportunity scholarships" targeting students in low performing schools. While these scholarships (just another form of a voucher) stifled some of the equity criticism, teacher unions were still not happy. Some states began to pass regulations, limiting the number and scope of the charter school movement to appease the unions. Voucher and charter supporters found victory in the case of Zelman v. Simmons-Harris. In this case, the Supreme Court ruled that voucher's do not violate the "establishment clause" (the portion of the 1st Amendment stating that government can not support one religion over another or be involved in religious matters) as long as the program had a "valid secular purpose."
Another reaction against the encroachment of the federal government and the demise of public education was the homeschooling movement. In its modern form, homeschooling took off in the 1990s and gained momentum in the first decade of the 21st Century. One reason was that many states began to limit school choice, end voucher programs, and relegate more and more authority to national and federal entities. Basically, limits on parental choice has led to more and more parents choosing the homeschool option. Today about 2 million children are homeschooled and the movement has created its own curriculum and instruction websites and scholastic organizations. By law homeschooled kids may compete in academic and athletic competitions just like their go to school peers.
President George W. Bush vastly increased the federal governments role in education with the passage of the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) legislation in 2002. For the first time the federal government went beyond the scope of ensuring equity and funding to involving itself in testing, curricular choice and design, and the development of standards. The key component, taken from Bush's education reforms when he was governor of Texas, was a comprehensive “high stakes” testing program tied to punishments if schools and districts did not show adequate improvement based on a measure called AYP or Adequate Yearly Progress. While it was hard to argue against the accountability factors in the legislation, few teacher unions or organizations approved of the high-stakes testing program. To encourage compliance, federal money from ESEA and other sources was tied to acceptance of the federal testing program. Essentially ESEA became NCLB.
NCLB had ripple effects in the education industry. Textbook publishers, curriculum companies, consulting firms, and data services developed products to assist schools in meeting the NCLB guidelines. With practically every school adjusting to the new federal requirements alot of money was at stake. Like the weapons industry in the 1950s a relationship began to develop between the public and private spheres. Eisenhower's "military-industrial complex" was replicated with a "federal mandate-education industry complex." With most schools looking for the best way to "teach to the test," big money was on the line, so lobbing efforts by the education industry at the federal level increased dramatically as did the influence of national organizations like NEA and AFT. While not happy with the testing requirement, there were other factors being pushed by NCLB that could increase the number of educators and thus the number of union members.
Under President Obama, the NCLB foundation has been built upon with Race To The Top (RTT). $4.35 billion was allocated to the Department of Education to be given to states and districts as grants to do four things:
1. Develop rigorous standards
2. Adopt better data systems
3. Support educators to become more effective
4. Provide resources and interventions for low performing students and schools
This comprehensive piece of legislation, though voluntary, hit all aspects of education--standards & curriculum, data analysis, teaching methodology, and special programs. Some states opted out of the competition for RTT grants, wanting to maintain more local control; however, most states were not in a financial situation in which federal money could be ignored.
The next step in the process (currently in progress) is the Common Core movement. Education experts and stakeholders (but few, if any, actual teachers) developed national standards in English/Language Arts and Mathematics. In order to get federal money, states must adopt these standards with no modifications. This is the first time in U.S. History that at the national/federal level such control has been attempted in education. Some states have added addendum's to the required standards, expanding the concept to the fields of science and social science. There is much debate over the soundness of the research that this movement is based on and the role that should be played by the federal government. Adoption of the Common Core is technically voluntary, but like with Race to the Top, it is tied to funding that most schools rely upon. When taken in conjunction with many state government's opposition to and crackdown on "school choice" initiatives, the role played by Washington D.C. is growing bigger and does not appear to be changing any time soon.
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