Customer Reviews

The Era of Education: The Presidents and the Schools, 1965-2001

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The Era of Education: The Presidents and the Schools by Lawrence J. McAndrews. This is an in-depth study of public school and non-public school aid from 1965-2001. There was a specific emphasis placed on Bill Clinton and his legislation which I found the most interesting because I was in public elementary school at that time. I liked the format set up of how he talked about certain issues and discussed not only the differenes between president's opinions but also First Ladies and what they have specifically done for education. He also concentrated on the differences between parties on education funding. There was also a large portion I found helpful on the internal arguments on the issues. These were mainly between the staffers and the presidents he also goes in depth on the process in which the final decision was made. This book was exactly what I needed for my thesis on government involvement and the funding of education. Each president's decision was vital to the next and McAndrews does an exellent job of portraying the positives and negatives of each president's decisions.

The Era Of Education: The Presidents And The Schools 1965-2001 by Lawrence J. McAndrews (Professor of History, St. Norbert College) is a close study of educational policy under presidents from Lyndon Johnson through Bill Clinton, especially concentrating on the issues of public school aid, private (particularly Catholic) school aid, and school desegregation, with concern as to the proper role of the federal government in education. Research of records from presidential and other archives, as well as interviews with key players in governmental policy have allowed McAndrews to meticulously reconstruct the evolution of internal debates, negotiations, decisions, and non-decisions over the decades. The result is an exhaustively detailed history, and absolute "must-read" for any parent, educator, or political professional, concerned about the future of local and national educational policy. Highly recommended.