| United States Department of Education |
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|---|---|
| Seal of the US Department of Education | |
| Department overview | |
| Formed | October 17, 1979 |
| Preceding agencies | United States Department of Health, Education, and Welfare United States Office of Education |
| Jurisdiction | Federal government of the United States |
| Employees | 5,000 (2007) |
| Annual budget | US$32 billion (2009)[1] US$56 billion (est. 2010) US$71 billion (est. 2011) ARRA Funding: US$102 billion (2009)[1] US$51 billion (est. 2010) US$23 billion (est. 2011) |
| Department executives | Arne Duncan, Secretary Anthony W. Miller, Deputy Secretary |
| Child Department | Click here |
| Website | |
| ed.gov | |
The United States Department of Education, also referred to as ED or the ED for (the) Education Department, is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. Recreated by the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88) and signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 17, 1979, it began operating on May 16, 1980.[2]
The Department of Education Organization Act divided the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare into the Department of Education and the Department of Health and Human Services. The Department of Education is administered by the United States Secretary of Education.
It is by far the smallest Cabinet-level department, with about 5,000 employees. The agency's official acronym is ED (and not DOE, which refers to the United States Department of Energy). It is also often abbreviated informally as DoED.
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A previous Department of Education was created in 1867 but soon was demoted to an Office in 1868.[3] As an agency not represented in the president's cabinet, it quickly became a relatively minor bureau in the Department of the Interior. In 1939, the bureau was transferred to the Federal Security Agency, where it was renamed the Office of Education. In 1953, the Federal Security Agency was upgraded to cabinet-level status as the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.
Upgrading Education to cabinet level status in 1979 was controversial and opposed by many in the Republican Party, who saw the department as unconstitutional, arguing that the Constitution doesn't mention education, and deemed it an unnecessary and illegal federal bureaucratic intrusion into local affairs. However many liberals and Democrats see the department as constitutional under the Commerce Clause, and that the funding role of the Department is constitutional under the Taxing and Spending Clause.
On March 23, 2007, President George W. Bush signed into law H.R. 584, which designates the ED Headquarters building as the Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education Building.[2]
The primary functions of the Department of Education are to "establish policy for, administer and coordinate most federal assistance to education, collect data on US schools, and to enforce federal educational laws regarding privacy and civil rights."[4] The Department of Education does not establish schools or colleges.[5]
The Office of the Inspector General has a unit of enforcement agents who conduct investigations and raids in connection to student loan defaults and fraud.[6]
Unlike the systems of most other countries, education in the United States is highly decentralized, and the federal government and Department of Education are not heavily involved in determining curricula or educational standards (with the recent exception of the No Child Left Behind Act). This has been left to state and local school districts. The quality of educational institutions and their degrees is maintained through an informal private process known as accreditation, over which the Department of Education has no direct public jurisdictional control.
The Department's mission is: to promote student achievement and preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and ensuring equal access.[7] Aligned with this mission of ensuring equal access to education, the Department of Education is a member of the United States Interagency Council on Homelessness,[8] and works with federal partners to ensure proper education for homeless and runaway youth in the United States.
Opposition to the Department of Education mainly stems from conservatives, who see the department as an undermining of states rights, and libertarians who believe it gives government too much power. Many who oppose the Department's existence hold that it violates the Tenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which states that "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people."
President Ronald Reagan promised during the 1980 presidential election to eliminate the Department of Education as a cabinet post,[9] but he was not able to do so with a Democratic House of Representatives. In the 1982 State of the Union Address, he pledged:
| “ | The budget plan I submit to you on Feb. 8 will realize major savings by dismantling the Department of Education.[10] | ” |
Throughout the 1980s, the abolition of the Department of Education was a part of the Republican Party platform, but the administration of President George H. W. Bush declined to implement this idea, as he was in favor of the Department's existence, but rather reformed its activities.
In 1996, the Republican Party made abolition of the Department a cornerstone of their campaign promises, calling it an inappropriate federal intrusion into local, state, and family affairs.[10] The GOP platform read:
| “ | The Federal government has no constitutional authority to be involved in school curricula or to control jobs in the market place. This is why we will abolish the Department of Education, end federal meddling in our schools, and promote family choice at all levels of learning.[10][11] | ” |
During his 1996 presidential run, Senator Bob Dole promised, "We're going to cut out the Department of Education."[11]
In 2000, the Republican Liberty Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the Department of Education.[12]
Abolition of the organization was not pursued under the George W. Bush administration, which made reform of federal education a key priority of the President's first term. In 2008, presidential candidate Ron Paul campaigned in part on an opposition to the Department.[13]
Under President George W. Bush, the Department primarily focused on elementary and secondary education, expanding its reach through the "No Child Left Behind" law. The Department's budget increased by $14B between 2002 and 2004, from $46B to $60B.[10]
As with other federal agencies, the ED operates with the assistance of several advisory committees. The Federal Interagency Committee on Education (FICE) is known in higher education for originating the FICE code, the six-digit institutional identifier assigned to each higher education (two-year and above) institution.
The FICE code is a six-digit identification code that was used to identify all schools doing business with the Office of Education during the early sixties. This code is no longer used in IPEDS; it has been replaced by the Office of Postsecondary Education (OPE) ID code.[14]
For 2006, the ED discretionary budget was $56 billion and the mandatory budget contained $23.4 billion. As of 2011, the discretionary budget is $69.9 billion.[15]
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