The 1990s Education: Overview

One of the major concerns of parents during the 1990s was their children's protection while at school. When asked about schools' shortcomings, parents named the safety and welfare of their children as their greatest fear. The media repeatedly covered incidents of shootings by students not only in high schools but also in middle schools across the country. Senseless deaths of students and teachers horrified the nation. While test scores and improved achievement remained key educational goals, increasingly schools were forced to wrestle with violent students. Metal detectors, police presence, and routine locker searches became common in schools across the country. Urban, suburban, and rural schools alike all faced similar student safety issues.

As funds were being spent to tighten security in schools, they were also being spent to improve learning. The bleak picture of public education—violence, low scores on standardized tests, run-down school buildings—convinced many parents to explore other education options for their children. These alternatives included homeschooling, charter schools, and school vouchers.

Of the more than forty million American school-aged children in the late 1990s, thirty million were enrolled in public schools. Some experts estimated, however, that more than one-half of those parents would have enrolled their children in private schools if they could have afforded the high cost of tuition. Even parochial schools that charged relatively low yearly tuition rates of several thousand dollars were too pricey for middle- and working-class American families. These families supported the idea of receiving monetary vouchers to defray part of the tuition cost, not only at private schools but also at successful public schools outside their district. As the voucher concept became more popular, its opponents made their views widely known in courts, the media, and political forums. School choice as an issue was hotly debated throughout the decade.

Another education topic debated across the country for several decades was the issue of teaching evolutionary theory in public schools as an explanation of human origins. Many parents and religious groups objected to the emphasis placed on the theory accepted by the vast majority of scientists around the world. They believed that creationism, the theory based on the Biblical account of creation, should be given equal treatment in public classrooms. The debate regarding teaching the two theories was still unresolved when the decade ended.

At the level of higher education, affirmative action suffered a major blow in the 1990s. The policy, which had been created to increase opportunities for women and minorities in the workplace and in university admissions, came under fire in several states. Voters decided to repeal laws supporting the policies, drastically changing the racial makeup of student bodies at public universities. In turn, many courts across the nation upheld these controversial decisions by voters.