Reflection on Reading
Part 1
In his review of President Johnson’s ESEA (Elementary and Secondary Education Act), Zelizer (2015) argued that the federal initiative barely achieved in lessening the gap between education for the poor and the rich. The writer hailed President Johnson’s vision of a perfect education system but lamented that the program failed when the education quality ended up being compromised following the erupting of substandard schools and staff shortages in the overcrowded institutions. Zelizer’s suggestion that the unprecedented shortcomings resulted from poor crafting of the policy puts the blame on the law makers. I learned that ESEA could never have succeeded unless the entire problems of the destitute were sufficiently addressed. The writer notes that the succeeding governments have progressively drifted from President Johnson’s vision by not solving the perpetual economic differences between social classes. It is agreeable as Zelizer put it that unless the poor are empowered by such approaches such as raising the minimum wage, the gaps in the American education system will persist.
On his part, Manna termed the American education system as complex considering that its running is shared among the federal, state, and local governments (2006a, p. 3). It is this complexity that the writer argued to be an influencing agenda in the making and implementation of ESEA. Policy entrepreneurs are the primary driving forces for the implementation of government agenda as they are the ones who determine the government’s capacity to act and license (2006a, p. 19). Manna’s analysis of the implications of the policy makers’ modifications of the political system when pushing for agendas on education reveals that there have emerged mixed results in the relationships amongst political institutions and other interest groups (Manna, 2006b, p. 141). It is worth arguing that the American federalism could have hindered or fostered the implementation of ESEA.
Part 2
Tyak and Cuban (1997) employed sarcasm in their book “Tinkering toward utopia” an illustration of America’s desire to achieve a perfect education system despite employing no sure means to attain the status. The writers assert that Americans are obsessed with the power of education and that the obsession is equally a misfortune as it is a fortune (p. 3). Their argument makes sense especially when one analyzes the impacts of policies that the nation instituted. The aspiration to make changes so as to perfect the education system blinds policymakers so that they do not dwell on the basic operations in schools, and so, they end up structuring mechanisms that do not only fail in delivering, but which also initiate their own complexities and hindrances. The writers argue that schools may not necessarily solve societal problems, and instead, they can be sources of trouble, more so considering their vulnerability to lack of economic competitiveness (Tyak& Cuban, 1997, p. 14).
From the same perspective, one can argue that education as a tool is both a remedy for social challenges as well as a scapegoat failing. Depending on the policies governing education, the society could progress or regress. For instance, as the authors observed, some reforms affect distinct learners differently or even introduce divides. The authors used specific examples to illustrate how creative and individualistic, alienated, or learners who only did well when directed were influenced by reforms. In such cases, introducing factors such as flexibility served as a virtue from one perspective but a fault from the other (Tyak&Cuban1997, p. 105). While some learners would find opportunities, others would have their chances limited. Indeed, the pursuit for a perfect education system is arguably about “tinkering toward utopia”.
References
Manna, P. (2006a). Part 1: foundations. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Manna, P. (2006b). Part 3: implications. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
Tyack, D. B., & Cuban, L. (1997). Tinkering toward utopia: A century of public school reform. Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press.
Zelizer, J.E. (2015, April 10). How education policy went astray. The Atlantic. Retrieved from https://www.theatlantic.com/education/archive/2015/04/how-education-policy-went-astray/390210/.
