United States Department of Education

United States
Department of Education
US-DeptOfEducation-Seal.svg
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)[2]
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
www.ed.gov
The Lyndon Baines Johnson Department of Education building, ED headquarters in Washington, D.C.

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. Created by the Department of Education Organization Act (Public Law 96-88), it was signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on October 17, 1979 and began operating on May 16, 1980.

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.

Contents

Establishment

A previous Department of Education was created in 1867 but soon was demoted to an Office in 1868. 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 a century later in 1979 was controversial and opposed by many in the Republican Party, who saw the department as an unconstitutional, unnecessary federal bureaucratic intrusion into local affairs.

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.

Rather, the primary function of the Department of Education is to formulate federal funding programs involving education and to enforce federal educational laws regarding privacy and civil rights.

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]

Organization

2007 Department of Education Structure
Office of the Secretary (OS)
Chief Operating Officer
Office of the Under Secretary (OUS)
Office of the Deputy Secretary (ODS)
Associated federal organizations
Federally aided organizations

Opposition

President Ronald Reagan promised during the 1980 presidential election to eliminate the Department of Education as a cabinet post,[3] 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.[4] ”

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.

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.[4] 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.[4][5] ”

During his 1996 presidential run, Senator Bob Dole promised, "We're going to cut out the Department of Education."[5]

In 2000, the Republican Liberty Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the Department of Education.[6]

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.[7]

No Child Left Behind

A construction project to repair and update the building façade at the Department of Education headquarters in 2002 resulted in the installation of structures at all of the entrances to protect employees and visitors from falling debris. ED redesigned these protective structures to promote the "No Child Left Behind Act". The structures were temporary and were removed in 2008. Source: U.S. Department of Education, [1]

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 69.6% between 2002 and 2004.[4]

FICE Code

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.[8]

Budget

For 2006, the ED discretionary budget was US$56 billion and the mandatory budget contained $23.4 billion. Currently, the budget is $68.6 billion, according to the Dept. of Education website.

Related legislation

See also

References

  1. ↑ FY2011 Federal Budget
  2. ↑ FY2011 Federal Budget
  3. ↑ "Online Backgrounders: The Department of Education". PBS. Fall 1996. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/backgrounders/department_of_education.html. Retrieved 2005-07-26. 
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 "Elimination Lost: What happened to abolishing the Department of Education?". Cato Institute. 2004-02-11. http://www.cato.org/research/articles/gryphon-040211.html. Retrieved 2005-07-26. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 "Department of Education must be abolished". World Net Daily. 2004-12-07. http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41802. Retrieved 2005-07-26. 
  6. ↑ "Education". 2007. http://workingcalifornians.com/2008_presidential_issues/education. Retrieved 2007-09-14. 
  7. ↑ Stossel, John (2007-12-10). "Ron Paul Unplugged". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=3970818. Retrieved 2008-01-30. 
  8. ↑ "IPEDS Glossary". http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/glossary/index.asp?charindex=F. Retrieved 2007-04-07. 

Further reading

External links

United States federal executive departments

Agriculture • Commerce • Defense • Education • Energy • Health and Human Services • Homeland Security • Housing and Urban Development • Interior • Justice • Labor • State • Transportation • Treasury • Veterans Affairs
Past departments:  Commerce and Labor • Health, Education, and Welfare • Navy • Post Office • War
Agencies under the United States Department of Education
Secretary of Education
Office for Civil Rights · Institute of Education Sciences
 United States Department of Education Seal
Deputy Secretary of Education
Office of Safe and Drug Free Schools · Office of Innovation and Improvement · Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services · Office of English Language Acquisition · Office of Elementary and Secondary Education
Under Secretary of Education
Office of Federal Student Aid · Office of Vocational and Adult Education · Office of Postsecondary Education · White House Initiative on Historically Black Colleges and Universities
Programs
National Center for Education Statistics · National Library of Education · National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research · Office of Migrant Education • Education Resources Information Center · National Assessment of Educational Progress
Independent Organizations
Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance · National Institute for Literacy · National Assessment Governing Board · National Board for Education Sciences · White House Initiative on Tribal Colleges and Universities · White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans