Federal control over education: Crisis, deception, and institutional change

Abstract

This paper analyzes the emergence of two key statutes which first established comprehensive federal controls over education in the United States, the National Defense Education Act of 1958 and the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The U.S. experience in establishing federal control over education is examined against a model of institutional change grounded in the economics of political transaction-cost manipulation. Detailed examination of relevant congressional documents shows the roles of real and feigned crisis and of deliberate deception in effecting acceptance of federal control over education.