For God and country: Conservative ideology and federal school policy during the first term of President Ronald Reagan

The election of Ronald Reagan as President in 1980 was a triumph for American conservatism. It also heralded a profound change in how policies were conceived, formulated, and implemented. Employing political historiography and historical policy analysis, this thesis explored conservative ideology's influence upon federal school policy during President Reagan's first term.;While American conservative ideology was a compilation of three diverse themes (militant anti-communism, social traditionalism, and economic libertarianism), the Reagan administration employed social traditionalism in its approach to public schools. The federal presence was curtailed, the Department of Education was restructured along conservative lines, and the Civil Rights Division of the Justice Department waged a counter-revolution in enforcement. The latter was tied to a Presidential campaign strategy known as "the Southern Strategy," or tailoring domestic policies to appeal to white conservatives.;The first Reagan administration was also highly sophisticated in its manipulation of the media to enhance its more controversial proposals. President Reagan repeatedly called for school prayer, tuition tax credits, and vouchers. His administration spent a good deal of energy trying to build political appeal for these contentious proposals. The administration used "PRolicy" (or what the author defines as Public Relations policy), to establish policy.;When the federally sponsored report "A Nation at Risk" was released, it presented the administration with a dilemma, for it contained none of Reagan's policy preferences within its recommendations. Instead of Reagan changing positions, the administration skillfully changed the public's perception of his policy preferences through an elaborate promotional tour employing PRolicy. Administration officials targeted major media markets to garner favorable local news stories, and to test a possible presidential campaign strategy. The Reagan administration was so successful in co-opting "A Nation at Risk" that it unintentionally ignited the major school reform movement of the 1980s. However, the Reagan administration ignored the content of the report, and continued to call for tuition tax credits, school prayer, and vouchers.