The Policy Monopoly of Accountability: How Business Lobbyists Transformed Education Policy

In 1983, the Department of Education published a report entitled “A Nation at Risk”, which detailed the supposed decline of the American education system. In the wake of this publication, business lobbying interests across the country have lobbied for policies under the narrative of accountability. These accountability policies include standardized testing, punishments for failing schools, and additional assistance for students in need. This paper describes the process by which business interests captured the education policy debate and instituted accountability policies at the state and federal levels. It examines business success through the lens of Punctuated Equilibrium Theory, which posits that policy changes slowly until pushed by a major event, which shuffles those in positions of power and allows new groups to institute a different policy regime.