Days of Future Past

For Monday:

• David Greider, "The Education of David Stockman," The Atlantic, December 1981.

For Wednesday, Johnson ch. 9.

Will post Johnson appendices -- good study material for the final.

Next week, student hours: Mon and Tue 1-2, and by appointment.

Oral presentations:  need three volunteers for Monday.  

That 70s Show:  Current relevance of laws that passed under Ford and Carter

• Ethics in Government Act of 1978: This act established mandatory, public financial disclosure for high-level officials across all three government branches.
• Trump's disclosure
• Presidential Records Act of 1978: A reaction to Nixon's attempt to control his White House papers, this law established that presidential and vice-presidential records are the property of the U.S. government. Presidents must turn over all official records to the National Archives at the end of their term.  Trump did not.
• National Emergencies Act of 1976: After discovering that numerous old emergencies, Congress created a formal process for declaring and ending national emergencies. A declared emergency automatically ends after a year unless the president extends it.
• Proclamation 10886 – National Emergency at the Southern Border (Jan. 20, 2025)
• Executive Order 14156 – National Energy Emergency (Jan. 20, 2025)
• Executive Order 14157 – Designating Cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (Jan. 20, 2025)
• Executive Order 14193 – Illicit Drug Emergency at the Northern Border (Feb. 1, 2025)
• Three Executive Orders – Tariff Emergencies on Mexico, Canada, and China (Feb. 2025)
• Executive Order 14144 – Cybersecurity Innovation Emergency (Jan. 16, 2025)
• Executive Order 14203 – Sanctions on the International Criminal Court (Feb. 6, 2025)
• Executive Order 14257 – Reciprocal Tariff Emergency (Apr. 2, 2025)
• Executive Order 14323 – Emergency Sanctions Against Brazil (Jul. 30, 2025)
• Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) of 1978: Reaction to revelations of illegal domestic spying, FISA created a special court to oversee and authorize surveillance activities against foreign powers and their agents in the U.S. It also established congressional oversight committees for intelligence activities.
•  ANTIFA and surveillance

• Inspector General Act of 1978: This act established independent offices of Inspectors General within major federal agencies to combat waste, fraud, and abuse. 
• Trump has fired 17 of them and and 75% of these posts are vacant.

And of course...Education

• Califano-- an LBJ guy in the Carter administration
• Was education doing well in the 1970s?
• Why did Carter propose a separate Education Department?
• (Hint)
• Why did Califano oppose it?
• What did he think was the "greatest danger"? (p. 279)

The special case of special ed.

About 1.8 million students with physical and mental disabilities were either completely excluded from the public school system, placed in institutions, or held in separate, inadequate classrooms.  A young Yale Law graduate investigates (start at 3:20)

    Legal precedents:

•  PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was a 1972 landmark lawsuit that established the right to a free public education for children with intellectual disabilities in Pennsylvania. 
• Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia (1972): broadened the right to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) to include all children with disabilities. The court also ruled that a lack of funding could not be used as an excuse to deny educational services.

1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (in 1990 becomes IDEA).
 As a condition of federal aid, schools must abide by these conditions:
• Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE): Schools cannot exclude students based on  disability.
• Individualized Education Program (IEP): Schools must evaluate a child's special needs and develop an individualized education program.
• Parental involvement: Mandates the involvement of a child's parents in the the IEP.
• Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): Requires that children with disabilities be educated alongside their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent appropriate.

       Signing the bill, Ford offered prescient words of caution:

Unfortunately, this bill promises more than the Federal Government can deliver, and its good intentions could be thwarted by the many unwise provisions it contains. Everyone can agree with the objective stated in the title of this bill--educating all handicapped children in our Nation. The key question is whether the bill will really accomplish that objective.

Even the strongest supporters of this measure know as well as I that they are falsely raising the expectations of the groups affected by claiming authorization levels which are excessive and unrealistic.

        As Ford predicted, appropriations have never come close to the         authorized level. 

    Project 2025: 

"Most IDEA funding should be converted into a no-strings formula block grant targeted at students with disabilities and distributed  directly to local education agencies by Health and Human Service’s Administration for Community Living."

        Recent Layoffs and OSEP and OCR could have the same effect.