Federal Funding of Public K-12 Education? The Battle over the Blair Bill, 1881-1890

• In Event: 106 - Open Refereed Roundtable Session I
  In Refereed Roundtable: A. Table 16. Public Policy

Abstract

In the U.S. today, education is often viewed as the answer to national problems ranging from racial discrimination to relative poverty. Yet, the U.S. is an exception among advanced, industrialized nations in that it does not have a strong federally financed and controlled system of education. The primary control and funding of U.S. public education rests not in the hands of the national government, but in the hands of state and local authorities. Researchers have shown that this decentralized system results in numerous inequalities, but in the U.S. public K-12 educational remains decentralized. Why? I examine a policy sponsored by Senator Henry W. Blair and supported by several U.S. Presidents that was designed to reduce inequalities in educational opportunity and access, and that, if passed, would have provided direct federal funds for public K-12 education. The Blair bill was first introduced in 1881 and was passed by the Senate in 1884, 1886, and 1888, but died on the House floor in all of these years and, hence, never became law. I argue that explaining the failure of the Blair bill is important because its defeat set a significant policy precedent regarding education in the U.S. The discussions, debates, and eventual outcome of the Blair bill set the limits and possibilities for federal involvement in education in the years to follow. Thus, I assert that the Blair bill is an important “forgotten alternative” in the development of K-12 educational policy in the United States.

Author

• Emily A. Bowman, Coe College