American Politics Today - Essentials (3rd Ed)

460 CHAPTER 14|ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICY

was created in 1980, signaling the government’s interest in playing an important

role in education policy.

A recent debate concerning the national government’s role in education policy

has focused on standards-based education reform: Should the national government

establish standards and impose accountability as a way to improve public schools?

The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 requires yearly statewide standardized

testing in math and reading. If the test results show that a school is not meeting

annual academic benchmarks, it loses some federal funding and its students may

transfer to another public school. Critics argue that standardized test results are a

poor measurement of progress, as schools “teach to the test” and manipulate other

aspects of the evaluation system.

President Obama’s “Race to the Top” program dedicated $4 billion to com-

petitive grants in 2010 and a proposed $1.35 billion in 2011 to encourage schools

to adopt more challenging standards and better tools of assessment, promote

better leadership and methods for assessing and rewarding excellent teaching,

create better data systems for tracking students’ progress, and obtain stronger

commitments for improving the worst-performing schools. These grants were

aimed at strengthening the quality of public education while improving account-

ability.^56 Early in 2012 the Obama administration proposed the RESPECT proj-

ect (Recognizing Educational Success, Professional Excellence and Collab-

orative Teaching), which is another set of incentive grants aimed at improving

education.^57

Source: Congressional Budget Offi ce, Economic and Budget Issue Brief, “Changes in Participation in Means-

Tested Programs,” April 20, 2005, p. 3, available at http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/63xx/ doc6302/04-20-Means-Tested

.pdf, for data through 2003 (accessed 9/24/12). Various sources for 2012 (2012 is reported in 2003 dollars to

allow comparison with the previous study).

PARTICIPATION IN MEANS-TESTED PROGRAMS

The social policy “safety net” is supposed to protect poor Americans during periods

of economic recession. A deep recession happened in the early 1980s, and the other

recession during the time frame depicted here was in the early 1990s. To what extent

did the safety net play its intended role?

FIGURE » 14.9

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

40

45

50

55

19771979198119831985198719891991199319951997199920012003200520072009 2012

Medicaid

Millions

Medicaid

and SCHIP

Food stamps

Earned Income

Tax Credit

Supplemental Security Income

AFDC/TANF