1930's Education | The New Deal in Education

Adversaries.

Although Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal significantly altered practices in business and politics, it did little to change the traditions of American education. For the most part the New Deal left control of schools to localities and failed to deliver federal assistance to schools. Roosevelt cut the budget and staff of the U.S. Office of Education until it was smaller by the end of the decade than it had been at the beginning. Tensions between New Dealers and educators were so high that Roosevelt snubbed the NEA convention of 1934, which had convened in Washington specifically to consider the relationship between the New Deal and education. When it came to education, the New Deal and teachers' groups were adversaries, not allies.

Politics.

New Dealers kept their distance from educational reform because the issue was so politically charged. Schools were powerful political symbols to many Americans,...