Lawrence J. McAndrews, The Era of Education: The Presidents and the Schools, 1965-2001

On March 31, 2011October 21, 2011 By Kevin R. KosarIn BooksLeave a comment

Lawrence J. McAndrews, The Era of Education: The Presidents and the Schools, 1965-2001 (Urbana-Champaign, IL: University of Illinois Press, 2006)

You may order a copy of this book here.

Reviewed by Kevin R. Kosar

When working on my dissertation, on education policy and politics from 1789 through 2002, I was surprised to find so little research on the history of the federal role. I was pleased to find a number of articles and dissertations that examined one or another aspect of this topic; books, though, were few.

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Susan Levine, School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program

On March 31, 2011May 17, 2011 By Kevin R. KosarIn BooksLeave a comment

Susan Levine, School Lunch Politics: The Surprising History of America’s Favorite Welfare Program (Princeton University Press, 2008)

You may order a copy of this book here.

Reviewed by Kevin R. Kosar

Each school day, the National School Lunch Program provides reduced cost or free lunches to about 30 million school children. The program, which has been around since 1946, costs taxpayers over $8 billion per year. In view of its size and activities, it is astonishing that so little has been written about it. Susan Levine has done us a service, then, in producing School Lunch Politics, which describes the politics that produced and shaped the program over the decades.

As told by Levine, the National School Lunch Program is a tale of politics and the suboptimal policy it so frequently produces.

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Books on the Department of Education

On February 19, 2011 By Kevin R. KosarIn BooksLeave a comment

Beryl A. Radin and Willis D. Hawley, Politics of Federal Reorganization: Creating the U.S. Department of Education (New York: Pergamon Books Inc., 1988).

Robert V. Heffernan, Cabinetmakers: Story of the Three-Year Battle to Establish the U.S. Department of Education (Iuniverse, 2001).

Failing Grades: The Federal Politics of Education Standards

On February 19, 2011March 31, 2011 By Kevin R. KosarIn BooksLeave a comment

Order from: Amazon.com or Lynne Rienner Publishers.

Summary. Presidents from two parties, supported by parents, teachers, and civic leaders have tried and generally failed to increase student achievement through federal policymaking. Supposedly path-breaking legislation to “leave no child behind” has hardly made a dent in the problem.

What is going on? Well… (read more)