President Richard Nixon

The presidential administration of Richard Nixon could be considered the most active since World War II in terms of a steadily expanding role in public education. But his focus was welfare reform.

To assist with his education program President Nixon appointed former New York State Commissioner of Education James Allen to serve both as federal commissioner of education and as assistant secretary of education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW).

Commissioner Allen was very experienced in this area, having served in New York State when New York City was experiencing a great deal of difficulty with its education system in the 1960’s.

Since one of President Nixon’s greatest challenges was the continuing desegregation problem, he was well served by recruiting the services of Commissioner Allen whose experiences with New York City included the desegregation conflict that occurred there.

Commissioner Allen immediately became concerned with the effectiveness of the federally funded programs, due in part to a series of criticisms leveled against the federal office of education. For example, two policy analysts released a scathing critique of Title I.

Their study, Title I of ESEA: Is It Helping Poor Children? claimed that many states had misused Title I funds, and, because of this, the study found that the goals of the

program were being undermined.
Commissioner Allen was so concerned that he proposed a new National Institute

of Education (N.I.E.) to study education programs and to study the link between federal aid and student performance in inner-city schools. This was the beginning of the use of student achievement to measure the effectiveness of federal funds.

President Nixon, throughout his administration, had a great interest in implementing welfare reform programs. A major part of this welfare reform concern was in developing child care programs.

In this he was well supported by legislators who were quite partial to the idea of assisting poor children. Further, the program intended to expand Head Start, a program begun under President Johnson in 1965.

Elizabeth Rose says that many legislators saw child care as a natural component of education policy, and after enacting various bills in the 1960’s in support of elementary and secondary schools, as well as for higher education, “child care seemed the next logical step.”

However, it was unfortunate that when Congress eventually passed a bill, the Comprehensive Child Development Act in 1971, to assist President Nixon, under pressure from the right wing of his party, he was forced to veto it.

According to Rose, “the bill offered substantial funding ($2.5 billion for fiscal year 1973) for child care centers,” but these right-wingers were afraid that the legislation would undermine the family, Sovietize U.S. children, and worst of all, promote racial

integration.

Special Education for the Disabled

It cannot be denied that the issue of special education for the disabled had received “steadily increasing attention” in Congress since the Kennedy administration. Both Presidents Johnson and Nixon contributed to the number of programs designed to help the handicapped.

However, a major push was made with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act in 1974 when the federal aid to special education was boosted from $100 million (in 1974) to $660 million (in 1975). These grants did not have a poverty criterion and as such flowed to school districts regardless of their wealth.

As can be seen therefore, President Nixon had mixed fortunes regarding aid to education and social welfare. While he was able to offer some help in his reauthorization of the ESEA in 1974 and some other bills, unfortunately he was pressured to veto the child care bill.

In the next post I will focus on the administration of President Jimmy Carter.

New York State Education Department, Federal Education Policy and the States, 1945-2004: A Brief Synopsis, 2006, 23

. Quoted in New York State Education Department, Federal Education Policy and the States, 1945-2004: A Brief Synopsis, 2006, 24

. NIE was established in June 1972 and was located in the Education Division in the Department of

Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). It was transferred to the Office of Educational Research and Improvement (OERI) in 1978. NIE was abolished in 1985 as a result of the reorganization of OERI.

. New York State Education Department, Federal Education Policy and the States, 1945-2004: A Brief Synopsis, 2006, 24

. Head Start was started as part of President Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty in 1965. It was designed to help end poverty by providing help to children of low-income families.

. Rose, Where Does Preschool Belong?, 2007, 285
. Rose, Where Does Preschool Belong?, 2007, 284
. Rose, Where Does Preschool Belong?, 2007, 285
. New York State Education Department, Federal Education Policy and the States, 1945-2004: A Brief

Synopsis, 2006, 36.