ABSTRACT
Let me begin with a short history of educational policymaking in the U.S. Basically, federal literacy policymaking commenced in 1966 with the passage of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). That bill, grounded in the then new national War on Poverty, targeted new federal money to schools serving large numbers of children who lived in economically disadvantaged homes. That program was viewed as a compensatory educational initiative in which these dollars would be used to purchase educational services that would supplement those funded through local and state education agencies’ money. In other words, the new federal money was seen as making it possible for schools serving many students from low-income families to add new educational services that would compensate for their economic disadvantagedness. In actuality, the new funds largely narrowed the education funding gap between schools in lower-and higher-income communities (Cross, 2004). This legislative act, ESEA, set in motion a series of federal education policies, policymaking that continues to this day.
