SHAPING PUBLIC PERCEPTIONS OF FEDERAL EDUCATION POLICY: AN INTERACTIVE-HERMENEUTIC EXAMINATION OF ROD PAIGE'S SPEECHES IN SUPPORT OF NO CHILD LEFT BEHIND

Abstract

An analysis of President George W. Bush's first Secretary of Education Rod Paige's speeches in 2001 explains the way in which the Bush Administration articulated its educational policy agenda. Literature on No Child Left Behind tends to focus on the specifics of whether the law helps children learn better or worse without recognizing or engaging with the broader policy agenda. This study attempts to bridge connections between No Child Left Behind and the broader Bush Administration ideology. A major connection this work highlights is between welfare policy and education, and by doing so utilizing George Lakoff's theory of moral politics examines highlights an overarching philosophy of governance, which shapes educational policy, perhaps even without regard to classroom outcomes. This analysis utilizes an interactive-hermeneutic model to crunch the text of Rod Paige's speeches. By coding and explaining major themes from the speeches, analyzing the language and rhetorical choices against itself and then comparing it to extant research on education policy and welfare rhetoric, this study provides a different way to examine political maneuvering on educational policy, which positions politics and language at the center of educational policy rather than efficacy and policy. This analysis finds by applying Lakoff's theory and work that Rod Paige's rhetoric, on behalf of the George W. Bush administration, is about reducing Federal responsibility for social problems and reducing the government's role overall. This is a "slippery slope policy" aimed at eliminating public responsibility for schools and privatizing education in service to the goal of creating an "ownership society" of privatized services and personal responsibility for success.