Don't make me quote George Santayana.

Reading from his prepared text, the president continued: since the country spent more on education in recent years "only to wind up with less ... America [should] get back to stressing fundamentals in our schools"--fundamentals of learning as well as of principles. These principles encompass the following five:
1. Education is "the right and the responsibility of every parent," and institutions serve to "assist families in the instruction of their children";
2. As in our economy, "excellence demands competition among students and among schools";
3. Diversity and pluralism in American education "has always been one of the strengths of our society, and we welcome the recent resurgence of independent schools";
4. We cannot "restore educational excellence in schools still plagued by drug abuse, crime, and chronic absenteeism";
5. Let us "begin... by allowing God back in the classroom."

Sound familiar? It sounds a lot like some of the things conservatives say about public education now. This was Reagan, speaking in 1981 to the committee that would eventually produce the report "A Nation at Risk".