U.S. Department of Education

In 1980, Congress established the U.S. Department of Education (ED) in the Department of Education Organization Act. ED combined several offices from various federal agencies. It is now responsible for assisting the president and Congress in creating and implementing educational policy, along with administering and coordinating most of federal assistance programs for education.

In 1867, President Andrew Johnson signed legislation creating the first Department of Education. At the time, the department's primary task was to collect information and statistics on the nation's schools. However, people feared that it would exert too much control of the local school system and demanded its elimination. The department was reduced to the status of the Office of Education in 1868. Over time, the Office of Education was a part of several different federal agencies, including the Department of the Interior and the former Department of Health, Education and Welfare.

Increased federal funding for education in the 1950s and 1960s led to the creation of improved educational programs for poor students at every grade level through college. Federal legislation in the 1970s led to improved access to education for minorities, women, people with disabilities, and non-English-speaking students.

According to the ED, its mission includes ensuring access to equal educational opportunity for every individual; improving the quality of education through efforts of the states, local school systems, other state actors, the private sector, public and private nonprofit educational research institutions, community-based organizations, parents, and students; promoting participation of the public, parents, and students in federal education programs; advancing the quality and appropriateness of education through federally supported research, evaluation, and sharing of information; and improving the coordination, management, and accountability of federal education programs and activities to the public and the legislative and executive branches of government.

ED is involved in four major activities: establishing policies related to federal educational financial aid, its distribution, and monitoring; collecting data and overseeing research on schools and distributing the information to educators and the public; identifying problems in education and focusing attention on them; and enforcing federal statutes that prohibit discrimination in programs and activities that receive federal funding and ensuring equal access to education for all individuals.

Under the Tenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the states are granted the authority to act in areas such as education as long as they are not prohibited from doing so in other sections of the Constitution. Insofar as education is not mentioned in the Constitution, the federal government has no power to act in this regard. Therefore, as a federal agency, ED is not permitted to exercise control in educational curricula, instruction, administration, or personnel at any educational institution, school, or school system. Individual states and municipalities have the power to establish schools and develop academic requirements.

Educational funding sources demonstrate the predominant role of the states and communities. The Department of Education (2002) states that a majority of educational expenditures are paid with state, local, and private dollars, with less than 9% coming from federal sources, such as ED, Department of Health and Human Services, and Department of Agriculture. When including secondary education, federal contributions, including student loans and other aid, make up only 12% of the total of all educational spending.

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