Despite the public's growing concern with education and its importance on the political agendas of the most recent presidents, serious discussion by presidential scholars has been minimal. Students of the presidency and students of education live in separate worlds and it seems the twain shall never meet. To turn the tide, the Council of the Miller Center authorized the director to organize a series of lectures and forums that would bring together leading educators, public officials with past or present responsibilities for the formulation and administration of educational policy and senior educational statesmen and scholars to join presidential scholars in serious dialogue. The contributors to this volume, who include former commissioners of education, the first secretary of the Department of Education, Harvard's dean of education, the education editor of the New York Times, the president of the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Education and other education scholars, illuminate certain main themes for students of the presidency and the concerned citizenry. They include historical and contemporary perspectives, the institutionalization of education, and reform. Co-published with the Miller Center of Public Affairs.
