How can the Truman Commission report be read 75 years after its release? Why should anybody care about it? What is this thing, anyway? The most compelling way to read "Higher Education for American Democracy" is as a visionary and progressive statement of the public purposes of American higher education. In so many ways, the report reads…

There was a lot of talk about both the fate of American democracy and American higher education in 2021, but not much consideration about how the two were deeply intertwined. The 1947 report "Higher Education for American Democracy" showed awareness of how race, sex, class, and religious discrimination thwarted the talents and ambitions…

The Fulbright Program is the United States' flagship educational exchange program. Since 1946, the program has been heralded as a program that promotes mutual understanding across cultures. However, the Fulbright Program's role as a U.S. Department of State initiative warrants further examination of how this educational exchange program functions…

Purpose: This study asks how American institutions of higher education defended the principles of academic freedom (or intellectual autonomy) during the 1950s, even as they became increasingly dependent on the federal government's financial support, their eligibility for which required an oath of political loyalty under the terms of the National…

The number and availability of service-contingent loan forgiveness and loan repayment programs have expanded considerably since the establishment of the first major federal loan forgiveness program under the National Defense Education Act of 1958. This report provides information on federally authorized service-contingent student loan forgiveness…

The National Defense Education Act (NDEA) of 1958 was the first federal investment in low-interest student loans and became a precedent for expansion of student loans in the Higher Education Act of 1965. In its controversial loyalty provisions, the NDEA required loan recipients to affirm loyalty to the U.S. government. Between 1958 and 1962,…

This study posits that the National Defense Education Act of 1958 (NDEA) represented the culmination of nearly a century-long process through which education was linked to national defense in periods of wartime, and later retained a strategic utility for defense purposes in times of peace. That a defense rationale for federal support of public…

The federal government pays for a wide range of goods and services that are expected to contribute to the economy for some years in the future. Those purchases, called investment, fall into three categories: physical capital, research and development (R&D), and education and training. There are several economic rationales for federal…

The "Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2021" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. This year's Budget includes $4.4 trillion in savings--bringing deficits down each year, and putting the Federal Government on a path to a balanced budget in 15 years.…

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2019" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. 2018 has seen boosted economic growth, the creation of more than two million jobs, and the addition of nearly $5 trillion in new wealth to the stock market. Unemployment…

The 2020 Budget builds off the foundation of the President's previous budgets and provides an avenue toward spending restraint. The Budget meets the President's directive on spending reductions by agency, proposing over $2.7 trillion in spending reductions--more proposed spending reductions than any previous administration in history--and closing…

"Budget of the United States Government, Fiscal Year 2018" contains the Budget Message of the President, information on the President's priorities, and summary tables. President Trump's 2018 Budget's defining ambition is to unleash the dreams of the American people. This requires laying a new foundation for American Greatness. Through…

This paper explores the historical formation of the National School Lunch Program (NSLP) in the United States and argues that programme emergence depended on the ability of policy entrepreneurs to link the economic concerns of agricultural production with the ideational concern of national security. Using a historical institutionalist framework…

"Straight A's: Public Education Policy and Progress" is a biweekly newsletter that focuses on education news and events both in Washington, DC and around the country. The following articles are included in this issue: (1) Problems Down the Road: House Passes Congressional Budget Resolutions, Sets Overall Spending Cap at $19 Billion Below Senate;…

As the United States continued to grow as a world power throughout the later part of the twentieth century, government funding for international education grew more closely connected to its national security needs. Federal funds have contributed to the growth of Area Studies and studying Less Commonly Taught Languages (LCTLs). Within the last ten…