cover image Congress and the Classroom: From the Cold War to ""No Child Left Behind""

Congress and the Classroom: From the Cold War to ""No Child Left Behind""

Lee W. Anderson. Pennsylvania State University Press, $29.95 (214pp) ISBN 978-0-271-03223-8

Covering in depth 50 years of American education history, Anderson's scholarly work considers Congress's role in federal government education policies, drawing principally from congressional records but rendering them in surprisingly accessible prose. Following congress from its initial reluctance to involve itself in state educational affairs to its current bipartisan belief in federal education investment, Anderson traces the debate from the Ordinance of 1785 to the landmark National Defense Act of 1958 to the ""large-scale compromise"" of the No Child Left Behind act, which balances ""federal support and high-stakes accountability."" Anderson has an eye for the telling quote, such as then-President Ford's prescient remark that the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 ""will remain in effect even though the Congress appropriates far less than the amounts contemplated,"" cutting to the quick of a persistent problem in all American educational legislation: woeful underfunding. By keeping his analysis to a relatively small segment of the debate that touches so many, and by focusing on the last five decades of enacted legislation, Anderson has crafted a worthwhile and clarifying look at the changing face of federal educational funding.