社区黑料

Editor’s note: We’re sharing this story from 2018 again for the 40th anniversary of A Nation at Risk.

“They certainly had no idea that the risk was the school.鈥�

No, they (the Reagan administration) and we (the American people) didn鈥檛. That revelation landed like a nuclear bomb, which, as former North Carolina governor Jim Hunt points out, is what most Americans thought they had to fear 35 years ago when 鈥淎 Nation at Risk鈥� was released.

In this gripping new 74 documentary directed by Jim Fields, Hunt and other key players recall how they went about determining that 鈥渢he condition of American education K-12 had deteriorated badly in the previous 25 years,鈥� and the essential promise they extracted from President Ronald Reagan beforehand that the report would be published regardless of what it revealed about America鈥檚 schools. (Credits: Archival documents courtesy of Harvard University Archives)

Ahead of the Reagan Institute鈥檚 Summit on Education, which commemorates the 35th anniversary of the聽release of 鈥淎 Nation at Risk,鈥� 社区黑料 is publishing a special series of articles, essays, and retrospectives about the release and the aftermath of the famous education report.听See our full series here.听