Politics & Power Quote by Roy Romer

“This nation has been drifting back” is a politician’s way of making decline feel both undeniable and almost accidental. “Drifting” is doing quiet work here: it suggests no single villain, no dramatic collapse, just a steady, negligent slide while other countries row with purpose. Romer frames the problem as relative rather than absolute - “in comparison with the rest of the world” - which instantly raises the stakes. Even if test scores inch up, it’s not enough if competitors climb faster. That comparative lens is a classic globalization-era argument: education isn’t only about kids or citizenship; it’s about national power, wages, and technological relevance.

The “last 20 years” is another loaded choice. It’s long enough to indict multiple administrations and defuse partisan blame, but specific enough to sound data-backed and urgent. It implies a generational failure: an entire cohort has moved through schools while policymakers fiddled, congratulated themselves, or fought culture-war skirmishes.

Romer, a centrist Democratic governor who later ran the Los Angeles schools, spoke from the bipartisan reform moment when “standards,” “accountability,” and international rankings (TIMSS, PISA) became political currency. The subtext is a rebuke to complacency: America’s self-image as the natural leader doesn’t survive a spreadsheet. And because he doesn’t name causes - segregation, poverty, funding inequity, teacher pipelines - the line also functions as an invitation: pick your preferred reform, but agree on the premise that the clock has been running out for two decades.