America has a labor shortage. Unemployment is at record lows. Businesses need technically literate workers to help them compete in the new information economy. The global economy has become the new cold war. This explains why the core of Bush s education program is standards and accountability.
Business people understand that simple management principle.
That s where education changes usually hit a wall of resistance. Because education is not just about competitive economic skills it s also about values. Progressive reformers such as Horace Mann and John Dewey wanted the schools to promote a common civic culture democratic values, which were presumably beyond controversy. In the 1920s, the issue was the teaching of evolution, a controversy that continues to flare up even today. Competitiveness requires more-aggressive federal standards.