People and Policy in Federal Education Legislation

The monitoring of funding programmes, called oversight, has generally had a negligible effect on determining overall education policy. Political survival, expedience, fear of defeat: these are some of the phrases that identify and characterise much of legislation, including education and its congressional policy formation. The proposed recourse was to defer the college tuition tax credit and instead to increase federal scholarships and student loans. In a related incident, Malbin describes the conference compromise of the 1977 GI Education Bill, in which no member of Congress participated. Education is a part of that vortex of public expression. Congress, under presidential directive, has diminished the federal role in education. Occasionally, a matter of compelling national attention becomes aligned with education, as did the post-Sputnik National Defense Education Act. Congress, when making or amending legislation for education, enters at some point into an established system of action.