ty won the general election.
             Thus, Thatcher's influence on education extended far earlier than her term
             as Prime Minister. During her early time as education secretary, Thatcher
             pushed for total comprehensive in the schools. Put simply, comprehensive
             education occurs when "all children attend a common school rather than
             being divided by selection between secondary modern, grammar, specialist
             schools, etc." (Gillard; Education in England). However, with the election of
             another labour government in 1974, the government failed to create a major
             education act that pushed for comprehensivisation in the schools. Instead,
             a two-paragraph bill gave the Secretary of State power to ask Local
             Education Authorities (LEAs) to plan systems that were not selective
             In the mid-1970 there was a large push by conservative politicians towards education that was driven by the marketplace and consumer. These politicians called for more national testing and the Labour government responded by halting any move toward comprehensive education in England. Further, a secret memorandum leaked to the press in 1976 argued that a new core curriculum should be imposed (Gillard; Education in England). At the same time there were calls for a change in the curriculum, which was felt to pay "too little attention to the basic skills of reading, writing and arithmetic" (Education in Schools: A Consultative Document DES 1977, cited in Gillard; Education in England).
             Prior to the national curriculum, the Thatcher governments played an important role in changing the educational system. From 1979 on, the Thatcher governments were focused on reducing the powers of the Local Education Authorities (LEAs), "many of whom they regarded as 'the loony left'" (Gillard; Education in England). They did this by enacting new legislation (including the 1986 (2) Education Act) to limit the LEAs' powers and increase centralized power in education. Further, comprehens...