1980S Social Issues
Question: What three issues did local governments strive to deal with in the 1980s?
Answer: crises in health, education, and safety
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Question: Americans directed their attention to what major social issues in the 1980s?
Answer: AIDS, drug abuse, abortion, and education
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Question: What was one of the most troubling issues that concerned Americans in the 1980s?
Answer: AIDS (acquiredimmune deficiency syndrome)
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Question: What happened during the 1980s that caused more Americans to become interested in finding a cure for AIDS?
Answer: increasing numbers of heterosexuals began contracting AIDS
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Question: Who are the “pro-life” groups and what do they believe?
Answer: opponents of legalized abortion who argued that human life begins at conception and that no woman has the right to terminate a human life by her individual decision
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Question: Who are the “pro-choice” groups and what do they believe?
Answer: Proponents of legalized abortion who argued that reproductive choices were personal healthcare matters and noted that many women had died from abortions performed by unskilled people in unsterile settings before the procedure was legalized
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Question: Webster v. Reproductive Health Care Services
Answer: the Court said that states had the right to impose new restrictions on abortion. As a result, abortion restrictions varied from state to state.
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Question: What was the name of Nancy Reagan’s anti-drug campaign used to educate students about the dangers of drug use?
Answer: Just Say No!
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Question: What was “A Nation at Risk”?
Answer: a federal report on education
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Question: What was revealed by the report on education called “A Nation at Risk”?
Answer: EDUCATION
American students lagged behind students inmost other industrialized nations
2. 23 million Americans were unable to follow aninstruction manual or fill out a job application form
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Question: What were the recommendations of the federal commission who issued the “A Nation at Risk” report?
Answer: EDUCATION
more homework, longer school days, and an extended school year
2. increased pay and merit raises for teachers
3. greater emphasis on basic subjects such as English, math, science, social studies, and computer science
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Question: What were the arguments and recommendations of President Bush’s “America 2000” initiative?
Answer: Bush argued that choice was the salvation of American schools and recommended allowing parents to use public funds to send their children to schools of their choice—public, private, or religious
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Question: Describe “urban flight” of the 1970s.
Answer: the United States had become increasingly suburbanized as more and more white families responded to the lure of new homes, big lawns, shopping malls, and well equipped schools outside the cities.
Businesses moved, too, taking jobs and tax revenue with them.
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Question: How did “urban flight” affect poor people and racial minorities?
Answer: they were often left in cities burdened by high unemployment rates, crumbling infrastructures, inadequate funds for sanitation and health services, deteriorating schools, and growing social problems
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Question: With the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA), how did women’s organizations proceed?
Answer: they began to concentrate on electing women to public office
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Question: Who was Elizabeth Dole?
Answer: secretary of transportation under Reagan
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Question: Who was Margaret Heckler?
Answer: secretary of health and human services under Reagan
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Question: Describe the factors that contributed to the “feminization of poverty”.
Answer: INEQUALITY
women earnedonly about 75 cents for every dollar men earned despite their eduction
2. about 31 percent of female heads of households lived in poverty, and among African-American women, the poverty rate was even higher
3. because no-fault divorce, fewer women won alimony payments, and the courts rarely enforced the meager child support payments they awarded
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Question: What was proposed by women’s organizations and unions to close the income gap that left so many women poor?
Answer: pay equity
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Question: How did women fight for improvements in the workplace?
Answer: they pressed for family benefits
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Question: What was often included in government and corporate benefits?
Answer: maternity leaves, flexible hours and work weeks, job sharing, and work-at-home arrangements
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Question: How did African-Americans make political gains during the 1980s?
Answer: by electing African-Americans to serve as sheriffs, school board members, state legislators, and members of Congress.
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Question: Richmond v. J.A. Croson Company
Answer: the Court further limited the scope of affirmative action, policies that were designed to correct the effects of discrimination in the employment or education of minority groups or women
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Question: Who was the fastest growing minority of the 1980s?
Answer: latinos
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Question: Why did many argue against bilingual Spanish education?
Answer: 1. they felt it slowed the rate at which Spanish-speaking people entered mainstream American life
2. they also feared that the nation would become split between English speakers and Spanish speakers
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Question: What did Native Americans campaign for after Reagan slashed aid to Native Americans for health, education, and other services?
Answer: Vegas-style casinos
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