Mortimer Adler, educational philosopher, announced in 1986 that the American educational system was "absolutely inadequate for purposes of democracy."

In 1986 Lamar Alexander, Republican governor of Tennessee, said that "What has finally riveted our attention on our education system is that our standard of living is threatened. We're not going to have the jobs and good incomes in America if we don't have the good skills."

Bruce Babbitt, Democratic governor of Arizona, said in 1982 on Meet the Press that "Federal involvement in education has been counterproductive. I believe it's responsible for some of the decline in quality."

Reagan administration Secretary of Education Terrel H. Bell said in 1981 that the nation's schools had been too preoccupied with the laudable aim of "bringing up the bottom" — concentrating on raising the performance of the less talented and the handicapped. The time had come, he said, to focus...