A Nation At Risk
Our Nation is at risk. Our once unchallenged preeminence in commerce, industry, science, and technological innovation is being overtaken by competitors throughout the world.
. . . the educational foundations of our society are presently being eroded by a rising tide of mediocrity that threatens our very future as a Nation and a people.
If an unfriendly foreign power had attempted to impose on America the mediocre educational performance that exists today, we mightwell have viewed it as an act of war. As it stands, we have allowed this to happen to ourselves.
We have, in effect, been committing an act of unthinking, unilateral educational disarmament.