Doctoral Dissertation Research: National and Local Policies in Public Education

SES#：1003130 PI：Pamela B.WaltersCo-PI：Emily A.Bowman印第安纳大学这个项目调查了为什么一个将教育作为核心价值的国家没有更集中的公共教育系统。为了解决这个问题，这项研究调查了美国历史上的关键点，当时美国认真考虑了旨在利用联邦资金提供公共教育的政策，但在很大程度上遭到了阻挠。使用比较历史研究设计，并对第二和主要数据来源(包括国会记录、报纸文章和档案材料)进行文本分析，研究了三个具体案例：内战后时代的布莱尔法案、新政时代的哈里森法案和反贫困战争时代的小学和中学教育法(ESEA)。这项研究调查了现有的精英统治、受压迫的动员、以州为中心、制度政治、政策遗产和政治文化的解释如何能够或不能有效地解释为什么在美国公共教育中缺乏强大的联邦角色。这些发现将有助于政策制定者。更广泛的影响：那些正在考虑学校资金均等化和教育券等当代学校改革以及《不让一个孩子掉队法》等常设立法的人，可以受益于了解以前提出的联邦一级再分配教育改革努力失败的原因和原因。了解影响改革轨迹的因素可以使政策制定者更好地克服政策障碍，这些政策有望改善子孙后代的生活。

SES#: 1003130PI: Pamela B. WaltersCo-PI: Emily A. BowmanIndiana University This project examines why a nation that embraces education as a core value does not have a more centralized system of public education. To address this issue, this study investigates key points in US history when policies designed to use federal funds in the provision of public education were seriously considered, but largely thwarted. Using a comparative-historical research design and conducting textual analyses of both secondary and primary sources of data (including the Congressional Record, newspaper articles, and archival materials), three specific cases are examined: the Blair bills of the post-Civil War era, the Harrison bills of the New Deal era, and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of the War on Poverty era. The research investigates how extant elite domination, downtrodden mobilization, state-centered, institutional politics, policy legacy, and political culture explanations can or cannot be usefully applied to explain the lack of a strong federal role in US public education. The findings will aid policymakers. BROADER IMPACTS: Those who are considering contemporary school reforms such as school funding equalization and school vouchers as well as standing legislation such as the No Child Left Behind Act can benefit from knowing how and why previously proposed federal-level redistributive educational reform efforts have failed. Knowledge of the factors that influence the trajectory of reform can better equip policymakers to overcome obstacles to policies that hold out the promise of improving the lives of future generations.