United States Department of
Education

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For the earlier incarnation with the same name, established
in 1867, see National Bureau
of Education.

United States
Department of Education

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

http://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) and signed into law by
President Jimmy Carter on October 17,
1979, it 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

1 Establishment

2 Functions

3 Organization

4 Opposition

5 No Child Left
Behind

6 FICE code

7 Budget

8 Related
legislation

9 See also

10 References

11 Further reading

12 External links

[edit]
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 unconstitutional,
for the sole reason that the Constitution doesn't mention education, and
an unnecessary federal bureaucratic intrusion into local affairs.

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]

[edit]
Functions

The primary functions of the Department of Education are to formulate and
administer federal funding programs involving education, such as college
financial aid, collect data on US schools, and to enforce federal
educational laws regarding privacy and civil rights.[3][4]

The Department's mission is: to promote student achievement and
preparation for global competitiveness by fostering educational excellence and
ensuring equal access.[5]

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.

[edit]
Organization

2007 Department of Education
Structure

Office
of the Secretary (OS)

Office
of Communications and Outreach (OCO)

Office
of the General Counsel (OGC)

Office of
Inspector General

Office
of Legislation and Congressional Affairs (OLCA)

Office for Civil
Rights (OCR)

Institute
of Education Sciences (IES)

National
Center for Education Statistics (NCES)

National
Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP)

Education
Resources Information Center (ERIC)

Office
of Innovation and Improvement (OII)

Office
of the Chief Financial Officer

Office
of Management

Office
of the Chief Information Officer

Office
of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development

Budget
Service

Risk
Management Service

Chief
Operating Officer

Office of the
Under Secretary (OUS)

Office
of Postsecondary Education (OPE)

Office
of Vocational and Adult Education (OVAE)

Office of
Federal Student Aid (FSA)

President's
Advisory Board on Tribal Colleges and Universities (WHITCU)

President's
Advisory Board on Historically Black Colleges and Universities (WHIHBCU)

Office
of the Deputy Secretary (ODS)

Office
of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE)

Office of
Migrant Education (OME)

Student
Achievement and School Accountability Programs (SASA)

President's
Advisory Commission on Educational Excellence for Hispanic Americans

Office
of English Language Acquisition, Language Enhancement and Academic
Achievement for Limited English Proficient Students (OELA)

Office
of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS)

National
Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research (NIDRR)

Office
of Special Education Programs (OSEP)

Rehabilitation
Services Administration (RSA)

Office
of Safe and Drug Free Schools (OSDFS)

Office
of Innovation and Improvement

Associated federal organizations

Advisory
Councils and Committees

National
Assessment Governing Board (NAGB)[3]

National
Institute for Literacy (NIFL)[4]

Federal
Interagency Committee on Education (FICE)

Federally aided organizations

Gallaudet
University

Howard University

National
Technical Institute for the Deaf

[edit]
Opposition

President Ronald Reagan promised
during the 1980
presidential election to eliminate the Department of Education as a cabinet
post,[6]
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.[7]

”

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.[7]
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.[7][8]

”

During his 1996 presidential run, Senator Bob Dole promised, "We're going
to cut out the Department of Education."[8]

In 2000, the Republican Liberty
Caucus passed a resolution to abolish the Department of Education.[9]

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.[10]

[edit]
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.[7]

[edit]
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.[11]

[edit]
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.

[edit]
Related legislation

1965: Elementary
and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)

1965: Higher
Education Act of 1965 (HEA) (Pub. L. No. 89-329)

1974: Family
Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

1974: Equal
Educational Opportunities Act of 1974 (EEOA)

1975: Education
for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) (Pub. L. No. 94-142)

1978: Protection
of Pupil Rights Amendment

1980: Department
of Education Organization Act (Pub. L. No. 96-88)

1984: Equal Access Act

1990: The Jeanne Clery Disclosure of
Campus Security Policy and Campus Crime Statistics Act (Clery Act)

1994: Improving
America's Schools Act of 1994

2001: No Child Left
Behind Act (NCLB)

2004: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

2005: Higher Education Reconciliation Act of 2005 (HERA) (Pub. L. No.
109-171)

2006: Carl
D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Improvement Act

2007: America COMPETES
Act

2008: Higher Education Opportunity Act (HEOA) (Pub. L. No. 110-315)

2009: Race to the Top

2009: Student
Aid and Fiscal Responsibility Act

2010: Health
Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010

[edit]
See also

Government
of the United States portal

Education
portal

Educational
attainment in the United States

Education
in the United States

Secretary of
Education

Office of
Federal Student Aid

Free
Application for Federal Student Aid

Council
for Higher Education Accreditation

National
Diffusion Network

School
Improvement Grant

[edit]
References

^
FY2011 Federal Budget

^
FY2011 Federal Budget

^
http://www2.ed.gov/about/what-we-do.html

^
http://www2.ed.gov/programs/gtep/gtep.pdf

^
http://www2.ed.gov/about/overview/focus/what.html

^
"Online Backgrounders: The Department of Education".
PBS. Fall 1996. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/backgrounders/department_of_education.html. Retrieved 2005-07-26.

^ a
b
c
d
"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.

^ a
b
"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.

^
"Education". 2007. http://workingcalifornians.com/2008_presidential_issues/education. Retrieved 2007-09-14.

^
Stossel, John (2007-12-10). "Ron
Paul Unplugged". ABC News. http://abcnews.go.com/2020/Stossel/story?id=3970818. Retrieved 2008-01-30.

^
"IPEDS Glossary". http://nces.ed.gov/ipeds/glossary/index.asp?charindex=F. Retrieved 2007-04-07.

[edit]
Further reading

Cabinetmakers: Story of the Three-Year Battle to Establish the U.S.
Department of Education. Author: Robert V. Heffernan. 2001. ISBN:
9780595158706

[edit]
External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: United
States Department of Education

United
States Department of Education Official Website

How is the Department of Education Organized

ERIC Digests - Informational digests on educational topics
produced by the U.S. Department of Education before 1983.

Proposed and finalized federal regulations from the United States
Department of Education

v • d • e

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

v • d • e

Agencies under the
United States Department of Education

Secretary
of Education

Office
for Civil Rights ·
Institute
of Education Sciences

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

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Department_of_Education"

Categories: United
States Department of Education | Government
agencies established in 1979

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