ERTA also changed the perception of the budget
priorities of the Republican Party. Prior to Reagan’s
presidency, Republicans had historically pushed for
tax cuts, but not at the expense of large budget defi-
cits. As desirable as tax cuts were, balanced budgets
were usually deemed more important. Beginning
with the Reagan administration, however, the em-
phasis for many Republicans moved toward cutting
taxes rather than reducing the deficit. This trend
was greatly strengthened after George H. W. Bush’s
presidency. Bush, concerned over the state of the
debt, broke a campaign promise and raised taxes.
He failed to win a second term in 1992.
Further Reading
Steinmo, Sven.Taxation and Democracy. New Haven,
Conn.: Yale University Press, 1993.
Stockman, David.Triumph of Politics. New York:
Harper and Row, 1986.
White, Joseph, and Aaron Wildavsky.The Deficit and
the Public Interest: The Search for Responsible Bud-
geting in the 1980’s. Berkeley: University of Califor-
nia Press, 1989.
Patrick Fisher
See also Business and the economy in the United
States; Congress, U.S.; Conservatism in U.S. politics;
Reagan, Ronald; Reagan Democrats; Reagan Revo-
lution; Reaganomics.
Education in Canada
Definition Policies, practices, and cultural trends
affecting academic instruction in Canada, from
preschool through graduate and professional
schools
During the 1980’s, the policy of multiculturalism was im-
plemented in the areas of curriculum and teacher training.
Criteria for funding private schools were either maintained
or amended as a result of increasing demands from the pub-
lic, and community colleges were also challenged. Mean-
while, baccalaureate programs were instituted for the first
time in British Columbia.
As the only industrialized democracy without a na-
tional office of education, Canada had ten provin-
cial and three territorial systems of education. Al-
though Canada was the first country in the world to
adopt an official policy embracing multiculturalism
in 1971, ten years later, the Canadian Ethnic Studies
Association suggested that the policy had not been
translated into school curricula. As a result, in 1981
the association organized a national conference
with the theme “De-mythifying the Minority Groups:
Some Issues in School Curricula.” In the following
year, Canada’s new constitution made it a multicul-
tural state by virtue of Section 27 of the Canadian
Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
Multiculturalism in Canadian Schools In response
to the policy of multiculturalism, several provinces
focused on eliminating prejudice and stereotyping
from school curricula and textbooks. Regular review
procedures were set up to screen the books to be in-
cluded on authorized reading lists. Nova Scotia is-
sued guidelines for curricula to reflect the experi-
ences of its multiethnic, multicultural population.
Newfoundland reorganized courses on literary heri-
tage and required students to take a Newfoundland
culture course. Positive developments also occurred
in the areas of teacher preparation and training.
In Newfoundland, multiculturalism was an integral
part of both academic and methodological courses
in social studies. Saskatchewan’s Teacher Bursary
Program encouraged teachers to enroll in second-
language instruction courses and to pursue multi-
cultural studies. Alberta’s Intercultural Educational
Program was designed to prepare middle-class teach-
ers to deal with students of other classes. A program
in British Columbia aimed at developing teachers’
cross-cultural communication skills. Another one in
Ontario focused on awareness of cultural pluralism.
In addition, local and provincial associations orga-
nized workshops, seminars, courses, and colloquia
on multiculturalism. In the late 1980’s, two docu-
ments provided an official discourse on diversity.
Multiculturalism: Building the Canadian Mosaic(1987)
was a product of the new policy of multiculturalism
in a bilingual framework. This document defined
the goals and approaches of the official multicultur-
alism policy and provided a basis for the CanadianCanada Act of
Funding Private Schools Private schooling in-
creased significantly in Canada beginning in the
1970’s. In the 1980’s, this trend continued, as par-
ents who wanted to send their children to private
school demanded more public money to subsidize
that choice. Supporters of private schools argued
that the rights of parents to choose the kind of edu-310 Education in Canada The Eighties in America