US Federal Government Basic Education Policy Development Study (1993-2009)

Since the entry into the 1990s, the importance of education in the international competition and economic development is more and more evidence. All countries has placed education in the height of the strategic development, made educational policies and pushed education reform, especially the basic education. Our country has already obtained some success in education reform, but a lot of problems in basic education policy formulation and implementation directly affected the quality and the development of China's basic education. Compared to China, the basic education policy of American federal government has been developed for a long time, which got great achievement in the administration of President Clinton and Bush. American federal government adjusted the basic education policy in different social and historical background through giving priority to the development of education, overcoming the difference of party politics and playing to social forces, which closely around two aspects of fairness and excellent. Consistency and complementarity of American basic education policy promoted basic education in-depth reform and greatly improve the level of education. By discussing and researching the federal government basic education policy from 1993 to 2009, this article is to provide beneficial reference for the foundation education development of our country. This article is divided into five parts.On the basis of investigation the condition of American education, the first part mainly analyses the background of the basic education policies in Clinton admi-nistration. This part discusses the specific content, implementation measures and significance of new basic education policies.The second part introduces the background and the main content of new basic education policies in Bush administration. This part's analysis stresses the process, central goal, content, implementation and the problem of NCLB bill.The third part states the content and implementation measures of the basic education policies. In spite of the difference of the Parties and political ideas, the two government has some consistent in the determination to establishing the goal of American basic education and solving the problem of basic education. The Clinton administration inherit the previous government's basic education policies with no hesitation and The Bush administration is not reinvent, just inherit and develop the Clinton's. In order to ensure that all children can enjoy high quality education, the two government do a lot of things, such as setting educational standards, advocating educational duty, advancing the development of schools, attaches importance to the improvement of basic education quality, pay attention to education fair and subsidies to disadvantaged students.The fourth part discusses the basic implementation of educational policy and estimating the application condition. With the joint efforts of both American governments. The federal government's basic education policies acquires remarkable effect in promoting development of education and fairness in education. But American basic education policies still have many difficulties and challenges during the process because of many restrictions.The last part reviews the developmental process, the achievement and failure of American basic education policy make us contemplate, at the same time, the future development trend is also worthy of our discussion and research.