0.13 Sampson, p., & Roberts, k. (october 2011). historical comparison  (Page 7/14)

George Bush gave his inaugural address on January 20, 1989 opening with a prayer. He gave a brief mention of education as “intellectual satisfaction, and needed by children as stated, “They (children) need our care, our guidance, and our education”. He also thanked the children who were watching in schools and implored them to remember that they were part of the nation ( (External Link) ).

William Clinton gave his inaugural address on January 21, 1993 with little mention of education but a recognition of poverty for many children. He also asked, “young Americans to a season of service—to act on your idealism by helping troubled children, keeping company with those in need, reconnecting our torn communities”. ( (External Link) ).

George W. Bush gave his inaugural address on January 20, 2001 with a few statements of children and education. He stated, “The ambitions of some Americans are limited by failing schools and hidden prejudice and the circumstances of their birth”. Further, he stated the “every child must be taught these principles” about the principles that unite for justice and opportunity. He then stated, “If we do not turn the hearts of children toward knowledge and character, we lose their gifts and undermine their idealism”. He followed with, “Together, we will reclaim America’s schools, before ignorance and apathy claim more young lives.” He further stated, “Government has great responsibilities for public safety and public health, for civil rights, and common schools”. He also stated, “And we find that children and community are the commitments that set us free” ( (External Link) ).

Barack Obama gave his inaugural address on January 20, 2009 with a few statements on education and children. He stated, “our schools fail too many”. Later, he stated, “And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age”. He further acknowledged “a parent’s willingness to nurture a child that finally decides our fate”.

The majority of the inaugural addresses did not mention education or prioritize education. Many presidents talked about the role of the government, taxes and the economy, relationships with other nations, the strength and growth of the United States, and the role of citizens, amendments, and democracy. It would appear from examining the presidential inaugural addresses in isolation that education was not at the forefront of the nation’s needs. Yet, there is the caution that the inaugural address is only one speech and should not be examined without looking at educational reforms of the different eras as well as legislative acts that impacted the educational reforms.

Education reform

This section is a short description of some reforms that impacted the public schools. Many school reforms have been studied including an examination of implementation. Most of the implementation studies on reforms have either been efficacy studies or effectiveness studies (O’Donnell, 2008). Rogers (2003) expressed that there is “no universal data collection tools that can be applied across a wide variety of fidelity for implementation studies. Further, Rogers (2003) pointed out that the flexible nature of innovations help a wider range of adopters and conditions thus leading to a greater degree of sustaining the reform. And yet, it is this flexibility that leads to the difficulty in comparing reforms. Fullan (2004) implied that the future of educational reform is determined by policy makers as well as consumers when there is a common purpose and the strong involvement of the leaders and teachers. This strong involvement of local educational leaders and teachers should be a collective action if the entire system is to learn and move forward (Fullan, 2004, p. 7). Goodman (1995) divided educational reforms into “waves” (p. 1) where the first wave of reform was based on the agricultural and rural society. The second wave was the industrial reform with decentralization of decision-making. The third wave of reform was based on information and technology changes.