KATHARINE B. STEVENS
Figure 13. A Half-Century of K–12 Federal Education Spending: 1959–2009 $70 $60
Billions
$50 $40 $30 $20
2008–09
2004–05
1999–2000
1994–95
1989–90
1984–85
1979–80
1974–75
1969–70
1964–65
$0
1959–60
$10
Source: National Center for Education Statistics, “Revenues for Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, by Source of Funds: Selected Years, 1919–20 through 2011–12,” http://nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d14/tables/dt14_235.10.asp?current=yes; and National Center for Education Statistics, “Revenues for Public Elementary and Secondary Schools, by Source of Funds: 1919–20 to 1992–93,” http://nces.ed.gov/ programs/digest/d95/dtab154.asp.
schools, creating the Race to the Top (RTT) competitive grant program to incentivize reform at state and local levels. Like previous federal attempts, RTT’s ultimately had little to no impact on school performance, but the program further bolstered school reform as the key strategy for ensuring equal opportunity for the poor. At the same time, it reinforced focus on the relatively narrow goal of increasing student achievement— largely on math and reading tests—as the core aim of school reform, the primary measure of child well-being, and the ultimate purpose of federal funding.
Promoting Pre-K Thus, virtually all hopes for helping disadvantaged children have been pinned on schools for the last half-century, even as schools’ inadequacy has become an increasingly urgent concern. Recently, the newest school-improvement tactic has emerged: extending the reach of public schooling downward by adding a grade
for four-year-olds to the 13 grades already in place. While advocates often promote pre-K as crucial for advancing early childhood development, a closer look suggests that the pre-K push is, at least partially, the latest attempt to fix the K–12 school enterprise as an end in itself. In one example of this, a coalition of leading national K–12 stakeholders issued a 2011 report that emphasized pre-K’s value as a reform strategy to boost failing public schools, arguing for “reframing ESEA” to expand pre-K in part because “high quality early childhood education is a powerful tool for improving our education system.”105 Since then, several Democrats have proposed amendments to add pre-K funding to the ESEA, which is currently undergoing reauthorization. Along these lines, the US Department of Education’s role in promoting public pre-K has become increasingly pronounced. In 2011, the Department of Education launched the Office of Early Learning to “institutionalize, elevate and coordinate federal support for high-quality early learning,” as described 25
